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A fresh war of words has erupted between skydiving instructors and employer Experience Co over the company’s plans to hire more foreign workers.
The Australian Workers’ Union has excoriated Experience Co and its subsidiary Skydive Australia, which the union says has applied to the government to hire 37 cheaper overseas workers while axing its local training program. The company said it is not looking to replace local workers.
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“During a cost-of-living crisis our members are saying ‘let’s make a deal’ – but instead the company is suggesting that they should accept terms that would see a foreign labourer on a visa earning less for doing the same job,” said Jonathan Cook, AWU national organiser.
“We have current, local employees who want to be skydive instructors who are being grounded by an employer who’d rather bring in cheaper labour from overseas. It’s short-sighted and vindictive, and the AWU will be fiercely opposing the employer’s bid to the Department of Home Affairs.”
The AWU announced another round of industrial action from 20 to 23 February, following a strike over Valentine’s Day and another last December.
“We want a deal that offers secure jobs, fair wage increases and safe workplaces,” Cook said.
“What happened to ‘same job, same pay’? It seems to have a lot of loopholes if employers can use the government’s migration system to undercut their full time Aussie employees.
“It’s not a big ask, back your staff and don’t gamble on foreign workers just to save a few dollars. Our members aren’t asking for anything extreme – just a secure job that recognises the high-risk work they perform.”
Experience Co hit back, however, with CEO John O’Sullivan saying the move has nothing to do with the EBA negotiations, and labelling the idea of “somehow building an army of foreign workers” to replace current staff as “ridiculous, mathematically impossible and disingenuous”.
“Currently, there is a global shortage of skydiving instructors, so we have applied to the Federal Government for a Labour Employment Agreement to sponsor 15 instructors per year over the next three years. Our current instructor workforce is over 130,” he said.
“These workers will be used to bolster our capacity to serve more customers. Our application also requests assistance in sponsoring current members of our team whose visa arrangements are about to expire.”
According to O’Sullivan, the union’s objection to the application is “distracting from the core issue” of ongoing enterprise bargaining.
“The current proposal before our workforce would make them amongst the best paid workers in the industry nationally. That’s the outcome the company wants. It’s also the outcome I believe the workforce wants,” he said.
Skydive Australia operates at 12 locations across the eastern states and New Zealand.
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