457 Visa changes and Paint & Panel autobody repair shops in Australia

(c) Sam Street paintandpanel.com.au

In our recent tour of a number of Australian autobody repair shops it became clear that the abolished 457 visa and the new legislation has already caused problems for business who have brought over workers from overseas. We have heard of one deportation at least, and some business owners are wondering how they will find the staff they need with the more rigorous entry criteria. Spray painters have been taken off the skilled migrant list all together and there are meetings taking place with politicians to try to have them reinstated.

On the other hand some industry folk think that importing tradespeople from overseas is unsustainable and that having this option made harder will focus people to ‘grow our own’ and for business owners to take on more apprentices and take time to train them.

Those who continue to bring in skilled migrants will have to pay through the nose. Employers will be slugged at least triple the bill to bring foreign workers into the country as the Federal Government eyes off more than $1 billion in new visa fees.

The federal government has outlined in the budget its plans for scrapping 457 visas for skilled migrants and replacing the scheme with short and medium-term streams.

Application fees for two year visas will increase by $90 to $1150, while four-year visa applications will cost $2400 apiece.

The price hikes are expected to bring in an extra $47.6 million over the budget forward estimates.

On top of this, companies will also be slugged an annual foreign worker levy.

Until now, employers have contributed one of two per cent of their payroll to training if they employed foreign workers.

But the requirements have proved near impossible to police, so the government is taking a different tack.

From March 2018, businesses that employ foreign workers on certain skilled visas will instead be required to shovel money into a “Skilling Australians” fund.

Companies turning over less than $10 million per year must make an upfront payment of $1200 (per visa, per year) for each employee on a temporary visa.

They must also make a one-off payment of $3000 for each staffer sponsored for a permanent skilled worker visas.

Businesses with turnovers above $10 million will be required to make up front payments of $1800 for each worker on temporary visas and $5000 one-off levies for those on permanent skilled visas.

The levy is expected to rake in $1.2 billion over the next four years, which will be funnelled into a new Commonwealth-State skills fund.

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