Gina Rhineharts, $7, billion iron ore mine in Pilbara, skilled and semi skilled needs

[RobynMargarat]

AT least 10,000 workers will be needed for Gina Rinehart's new $7 billion iron ore mine in the Pilbara, the project managers revealed this week. It is the latest massive project that will put even more pressure on WA's skills shortage.

 

But unions fear foreign semi-skilled workers will dominate the site at the expense of WA workers, after project operators Roy Hill applied in December to be part of a new federal Enterprise Migration Agreement allowing resource mega-projects to import overseas semi-skilled labour and tradespeople.

 

Unions WA says locals should be trained for such jobs, because WA's youth unemployment is 19 per cent and as high as 28 per cent in areas such as Kwinana.

 

But a spokesman from Roy Hill, which is mainly owned by Mrs Rinehart's company, Hancock Prospecting, said 2000 of the 10,000 jobs would be "highly paid'' permanent positions for Australian residents.

 

 

 

The spokesman for Roy Hill, a company which has previously been reported as needing only 1500 workers, also said the EMA was only intended to help make up any shortfall when recruiting a further 8000 temporary workers needed during construction of the mine, which is 110km north of Newman.

 

He said locals would be first choice for the 8000 jobs, but labour market analysts had predicted not enough workers would be found in Australia. But he said also that under the EMA, employers still had to show that workers were not available locally, before getting overseas staff.

 

Then, foreign employees would be paid at Australian market rates and have local conditions.

 

Also under the EMA, the company would have to provide or fund a further 2000 training positions for Australians.

 

``Once we're in full operation, the intention is to create 2000 highly paid, full-time permanent jobs for Australians by the beginning of 2015, when we put the first ore on ship,'' the spokesman said.

 

``However, to get there, over a three-year period, that's how long the construction phase goes, we've actually got to have 8000 construction workers.

 

``We will bring in people for a while, scaffolders or riggers, crane operators, or welders or boilermakers, they might be there for a certain phase within the project and then they go again.

 

``Independent labour market analysts have said we've got a whole heap of shortages all through the project and we simply just can't get all those (workers) from Australia.''

 

But Unions WA secretary Simone McGurk said it was frustrating Mrs Rinehart was trying to get foreign semi-skilled workers, while youth unemployment ``in areas like Kwinana ...has gone from 14.5 per cent to 28.1 per cent in the last three years''.

 

Ms McGurk said the minerals the mining industry relied on were ``owned by West Australians and their extraction is a one-off''.

 

``Once they're gone, they're gone. So we only get one shot at securing long-term benefits, such as employment for our kids,'' she said.

 

``Strong laws should ensure that temporary migrant labour is a last resort after it has been shown that locals can't fill jobs."