112408: Australia needs 10,000 workers, says POEA

Raymund F. Antonio Displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and those who will lose their jobs in host countries due to the global economic crisis may seek employment in South Australia which needs 10,000 workers in 2009, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) reported yesterday.  POEA Administrator Jennifer Jardin-Manalili said Australia will hire thousands of Filipino construction workers, welders, and pipe-fitters for its road rehabilitation projects in the next 10 years. Manpower requirements of these projects are estimated to reach 133,000 until 2018. Another 206,000 workers would be required to replace those who would leave the workforce. "Australia is very reassuring that it will hire OFWs starting next year even in its export, manufacturing, and retail sectors adversely affected by the financial crisis," Manalili said in an interview. The country’s labor officials and Australian employers convened in a meeting last week to discuss the recruitment of Filipino workers in an effort to give them jobs in the host destination as they are adversely affected by the global economic slump. "They have assured us that they are coming over in January or February next year for the recruitment process. They went to the POEA because they wanted to know the procedures and they were advised what to do," she said. Labor and Employment Secretary Marianito Roque said Deputy Premier Kevin Folley will head the Australian delegates for the agreement signing with the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) early next year. "South Australia is bent on recruiting Filipino skilled workers to address its perennial problem on skills shortage and subsequently ease the pressure on employers in this Australian state, struggling with the lack of essential skills," Roque said. He said the labor agreement with Australia would be similar to the deal entered into by the DoLE with the Canadian province of Manitoba. "The recruitment of OFWs to South Australia would also be orderly, ethical, and in line with laws and policies of the Philippines and those of Australia, providing for the protection and the development and skills upgrading of OFWs," he said. A DOLE technical team and Australia’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship have been in consultations for the forging of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that would provide for the recruitment of skilled OFWs in Australia. In South Australia, nearly 1.6 million people live in the state that comprises less than 10 percent of the Australian population. Its economy relies on agriculture, mining, and manufacturing, mostly of automotive and component parts, pharmaceuticals, defense technology, and electronics systems.

 

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