IT recruitment specialist, 3W Consulting Contracting Recruitment Pty Limited (3W) was one of only 3 recruitment companies granted an On Hire Labour Agreement by the Federal Government this week. This agreement will make 3W one of few recruitment companies in the country that can on hire and land skilled workers from overseas on the 457 Visa System.

Joint CEO and Director of 3W, Andrew McCarroll says “the granting of the On Hire Labour Agreement by Minister Evans and his Department will allow 3W to hire high demand skilled IT professionals into the organisation, for contracting out to corporate and government clients struggling to attract workers in a talent short market. This overseas pipeline of skills will also allow many of our clients to commit to new IT projects, confident that they can resource these projects from the local workforce, supported by key skills sourced from offshore. We are already aware of a number of situations where this will be a defining factor in the decision not to send whole projects offshore to locations such as India.”

Andrew McCarroll and Bruce Mills, Joint CEO’s of 3W have more than 30 years combined experience in the IT and Recruitment industries in Australia and overseas. During this time they have seen an explosion in the number of direct and indirect employers hiring skilled and unskilled workers from overseas and relocating them to Australia. Mills says, “this has led in many cases to the abuse of the 457 Visa System, where some recruiters, payrolling/management companies and even IT consultancies have engaged workers from overseas outside of the rules and spirit of this System.”

Both McCarroll and Mills are very supportive of the previous Government’s overhaul of the 457 Visa system for the Recruitment and On Hire Industries, which has been fine-tuned and now implemented by the Rudd Government. Key aspects of the new On Hire rules ensure that members of the Recruitment and On Hire Industries (and their clients) meet the Country’s immediate and long term aims of hiring skilled workers from overseas under the 457 Visa System. These are to protect Australian jobs; realise flow-on economic benefits to Australia and to ensure that overseas workers are treated fairly and reasonably.

Mills goes on to say “in the past the Recruitment and On Hire Industries have displayed an inability to regulate themselves in relation to the hiring of overseas workers. Collectively they have made significant returns from this source of workers; however their reinvestment into building the local IT skills based has been questionable. The new On Hire rules bring long needed regulation and will support appropriate investment and industry development.”

3W is keen to work with Minister Evans, his Department and the Rudd Government to further enhance the new requirements for Recruitment and On-Hire companies under the On-Hire Labour Agreement scheme. 3W Management is aware of additional changes that could be made to ensure companies signing to the Agreement reinvest in the local talent market, specifically in their case the IT skills market. “We are looking forward to working with DIAC and DEEWR on these areas and also in the area of visa processing,” McCarroll says. “The new On Hire rules, contrary to the opinions of many in the Recruitment Industry, do not present any impediments or restrictive commercial barriers for them to hire skilled workers from overseas under the scheme. In fact, we have modeled our business so that profits generated by our 457 workers are invested into our local workforce and the IT Industry. This includes initiatives around IT Apprenticeships, under-graduate Scholarships and Internships and the up-skilling of our local workforce.”

And actions speak louder than words. On being advised of the approval of their On-Hire Labour Agreement, 3W immediately hired 2 additional entry level employees into their IT Apprenticeship Scheme. This is in addition to their training and skills transfer commitment under their On Hire Agreement.

For more information on 3W Consulting Contracting and Recruitment Pty Limited, contact as follows:

Andrew McCarroll
Joint Chief Executive Officer and Director
Telephone 1 300 857 773