Qantas (Qantas) and Tam Po government have signed an agreement to bypass new visa restrictions for technicians to recruit overseas pilots to stay in Australia for a long time.
A labor agreement signed last month allows the airline's township division, QantasLink, to bring in 76 pilots and instructors and stay in Australia for up to four years, free from new two-year restrictions that prevent them from staying permanently in Australia.
Qantas is the most prominent company to get a labor deal this year, which has become a new tool for employers to deal with the government's crackdown on technology visa regimes.
Qantas currently has 3500 pilots and is carrying out one of its largest pilot training programs in history, with a new center to open in 2019 to train 100 pilots a year.
The upcoming 14 Dreamliner means Qantas will need to train pilots to upgrade to replace those who are about to be promoted to open a new jet.
However, the company has struggled to recruit enough flight instructors and believes the two-year visa restriction for overseas pilots, effective in March, has caused Qantas to lose competitiveness worldwide.
The new labor deal allows Qantas to bring in overseas pilot coaches, as well as pilots of low-level propeller aircraft, and renegotiate them in the first year.
Although their visa stay is limited to four years, they can then apply for permanent residency.
A spokesman for Qantas said: "our focus has always been on recruiting Australian pilots, which does not have an change." The agreement allows us to temporarily hire a limited number of mock flight coaches and experienced pilots from abroad to support one of the largest training programs in our history. "
Industry agreement
The labor agreement dates back to Year Nineteen Eighty-nine, but has rekindled interest after government restricted the permanent residence of skilled visa workers, eliminated a range of qualified occupations and introduced dozens of business prerequisites.
Other companies that won labor agreements this year include Inpex Australia, beef exporter Teys Australia, which operates the Ichthys LNG project, and Aqua Dining., a fine restaurant in Sydney Port.
Parcel (Wayne Parcell), head of global immigration at Ernst & Young, said his company had seen an increase in employers' consulting on labor agreements, particularly in the aviation services and township health sectors.
"they are really the only way to relax the standards," he said. "the standard is that people have to guarantee people who are not on the list or who are not in line with the profession."
"there are no shortcuts."
Pezuro (Mike Pezzullo), director of the Immigration and Border Protection Department, told the Senate to assess hearings that the labor agreement was a "more targeted measure" to meet the company's specific requirements for skilled workers.
But Mr. Passel said he did not think such a deal was considered a "concessionary plan" by the department. The agreement also requires employers to provide "very cumbersome" information, documenting economic benefits, labour market testing, skills and wage levels.
"in any case, it's not a shortcut," he said. "because of the high sensitivity surrounding such agreements, you don't think of them as low-income, low-skilled occupations."