Indian IT professionals cashing in on lack of requisite local talent in Australia

Sydney -  More and more Indian workers are finding their way to Australia due to a lack of suitable skilled workers within the country, it has emerged.

Entity Solutions, the newest entrants to the market of importing ICT talent, finalised an on-hire labour agreement late last month with the Department of Immigration, enabling it to bring up to  50 ICT workers a year into Australia, under the 457 visa program.

Entity CEO Matthew Franceschini said that a key part of negotiating the labour hire agreement had been to demonstrate that the firm's clients had been unable to find appropriately skilled  workers from within Australia.

"We have been able to demonstrate that to the government. Our clients have skilled positions they are unable to fill. There's a global shortage of talent, it's as simple as that," the Sydney  Morning Herald quoted Franceschini, as saying.

According to the paper, candidates most commonly hailed from India, UK and Ireland, and workers from these countries collectively accounted for half of all 457 applications granted.

However, many ICT professionals in Australia are critical of the 457 visa system, which they claim, makes it too easy for large companies to substitute local staff with cut-price equivalents

from overseas, either directly or via third-party service providers.
 
"Those of us on reasonably good salaries are being replaced by Indian or other international workforces at salaries significantly less than enterprises would be paying their staff," one senior

IT network executive working on contract said.

Franceschini claimed that employers would rather hire locally but it was not always possible, as many clients around the country were keen to find a quick solution, which fulfilled their needs.