South-west plea for more low skilled migrant workers
Posted
An employment agency in Colac says dairy and meatworks businesses in south-west Victoria desperately need low skilled migrant workers.
The Federal Government will allow workers from the Pacific Islands to work on farms in north-west Victoria, in a three-year trial.
Paul McCallum from Colac Otway WorkForce says employers in the south-west struggle to find Australian workers willing to do farm or abattoir jobs.
He says the Federal Government should give the region's industries greater access to migrant workers.
"The need is very obvious, there's certainly no shortage of factual and anecdotal evidence to say that ... these two particular areas ... meat and dairy farming, in particular, are struggling to get people to fill their employment needs," he said.
