Gillard says IT is rorting 457 visas

[IQS.RLOW]

A very interesting point...

Remember three years ago?

”If it keeps up at this rate, it would take about 20 years to fill the MCG with boat arrivals,” [’human rights” lawyer Julian Burnside]scoffed.

Many of the Left were impressed by this airy dismissal.

Take Prime Minister Julia Gillard: “Mr Burnside is very, very right. This is a point well made.”

No, it wasn’t. Those who came simply encouraged more to come, exactly as predicted. Now we have boat people arrivals at a rate to fill the MCG not every 20 years but every five. And that’s without adding any family reunions.

[Super Nova]

It's not racist if I hate everybody

[Rorschach]

You don't have to hate to be a racist.

[freediver]

It's actually a lot cheaper to outsource all your IT to India than to bring them over here on a 457 visa.

[Rorschach]

You get what you pay for...

or to be racist... you pay peanuts....

[IQS.RLOW]

Coding wise, the Indians are pretty good.

Most of the time you can remote offshore contractors in via VPN so you have a level of control, hours worked and KPIs while keeping your full platform isolated and protect your IP.

Far cheaper than trying to employ someone in Australia who doesn't work out and then spend 3-6 months trying to follow Labors unfair dismissal laws and jump through hoops to remove a shit worker.

All Labor does is speed up the process of offshoring. Labour, like manufacturing is a global market now...and IT is far far easier to offshore than manufacturing. Which gives me the giggles when I read a forum like Whirlpool where you have a plethora of young IT ALP ballsack huggers thinking that the NBN will 'give them the edge'

All it will mean is that the IT industry will get Indian IT offshore workers at a fraction of the hourly rate and without unfair dismissal, no payroll tax, no superannuation, no GST etc etc etc.

Good thing they will be able to download porn and movies at breakneck speed...it's what 90% of them will end up doing

[Rorschach]

Ahem... some of them are pretty good.
Most of them are 'cowboys'.
Some of them even speak understandable English.
I know I had to train them.
When you work for IBM you usually have no union and have a contract.
If you don't work out you are let go.

[Rorschach]

Employers want a 'cheapie, just arrived off the boat', Aussie IT workers told
March 15, 2013 - 2:53PM
Sylvia Pennington

While IT figureheads are in high dudgeon over Prime Minister Julia Gillard's call for a crackdown on rorting and abuse of the 457 temporary visa system, local IT workers says she's on the money.

"To my mind, this is the biggest rort in the system."
Senior IT consultant

The situation is far from new. Vendors began using cut-price foreign talent to up their profits and elbow Aussies out of jobs early last decade, as soon as they twigged they could, according to those who claim to have been stung by the practice. yep

While debate over the visa system rages, IT consultancy Mahindra Satyam has announced plans to use staff from India, Malaysia and the Philippines to up its Australian head count from 1600 to 5000 over the next two years. Really? Thousands of jobs have already gone overseas, certain areas of IT are now permanently O/S and don't exist in Australia in some companies that outsource.

Forty per cent of the staff would be located in Australia and 60 per cent offshore to Mahindra Satyam, head of ANZ operations Bobby Gupta told India's The Economic Times on Tuesday.

The region currently accounts for 8 per cent of the firm's $US1.31 billion annual revenue.

One worker told Fairfax Media he was made redundant from his nine-year IT management gig with a national liquor retailer in 2003 after the company hired Satyam (now Mahindra Satyam) to take over the IT jobs of eight local staff.

"Satyam had set up company offices in Australia and were bringing in Indian IT staff to do our jobs," the worker claimed.

"We were given a few months' notice of our redundancy and in that time we had to train the Indian staff on how to support our internal systems. It was never said but we were made to feel that if you wanted your redundancy payment, you had to train them. While training the Indian staff, we found out that they were all in Australia on 457 visas. All too true....

"There were six of them with some rotating to give others exposure to the systems."

IT professionals say this practice is in common with other major systems integrators and consultancies that use short-term 456 and longer-term 457 visas to boost their bottom line by importing lower-paid overseas workers.

Latest figures show 5800 ICT workers arrived on 457 visas, which allow them to stay for up to four years, in the past seven months.

In a speech on Thursday morning at an Australian Council of Trade Unions event, Ms Gillard accused IT firms of rorting the visa scheme at the expense of local professionals. yep, but she didn't say the government has allowed this to happen even on accounts/departments they have outsourced.

IT chiefs say the claim represents desperate vote mongering but those further down the tech food chain believe it's high time the government cottoned on to an issue they've long been highlighting.

"Local workers are effectively replaced by [456] visa holders who come in via their outsourcing employer and they stay for the minimum time, three months, I think, then go home and are replaced by another [456] visa holder," said one senior IT consultant, who asked to remain anonymous.

"This way, their employers pay them minimum wages and are able to undercut local businesses in tendering for work. To my mind, this is the biggest rort in the system."

Vendors and industry associations maintain the problem is one of skills – local candidates just don't have the specialised expertise of their imported brethren (bullshit... if true why do we have to train them? hmmm?) – but workers say their rhetoric cloaks an agenda that's all about economics. It's all about the bottom line

"I actually have a colleague here who came in under a 457 and is sponsored by [a major telco]," the consultant said.

"His family are all here now and he's applying for permanent residency. I'm not sure what criteria he was able to meet but his actual job is fairly generic and could be filled by many Australian workers." Exactly...

Another ICT professional who contacted Fairfax Media claimed to have applied for a job in Western Australia relevant to his skills but was informed by the recruiter that the hiring company wanted a "cheapie, just arrived off the boat".

Satyam Mahindra was contacted for comment.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/government ... z2Nev4RNYZ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;