About to give up and head back

[Robzster]

[h=2]About to give up and head back[/h]

Hi all, I am having some issues at work. I am here on a 457 and have been since July 2014. Everything has been ok up until the tail end of last year. I currently work as a conveyor belt Splicer doing fifo in the Pilbara, sub contracted to FMG Christmas creek mine, 2/1 roster. Around December last year FMG at Christmas creek decided to remove the scaffolders from site, I guess to save money. That is when it was announced that my conveyor belt company was to take over the scaffolding duties. Now my company is attempting to force us into scaffold training, I have already expressed my safety concerns over this and the fact that I have no desire to be a scaffolder. I was verbally threatened with the sack if I did not comply with this training. I also believe that doing that job would breach my 457 conditions as it does not mention anything about scaffold duties on my visa and 99% of the scaffold has nothing to do with conveyor belts.

 

Has anyone else came up against these bullying tactics? I am pretty mad as this company got me and my family over here with all the promises of PR sponsorship etc which have now all disappeared, of all the 457s they got to Australia(think there was around 20) there is only 2 left. So I think they got their fingers burnt and lost a lot of money through the 457 scheme and now we are paying the price.

 

No one seems to be able to give a divinitive answer. Feel like just chucking it and heading home to be honest. Sorry for the long rant 

 

[Leanne Stevens]

That sounds like a tricky situation. There are probably lots of employment law issues here which you'd need to discuss with a specialist in that area. From a visa perspective, if you are on a 457 with an approved role description and occupation, and your employer decides to change your duties, they need to notify the Department and perhaps lodge a new nomination. The employer's other alternative I guess would be to make your position redundant, which would mean you'd have to look for a new employer.

[George Lombard]

Hi Robzster,

 

You could talk to the union, or you could talk to Fair Work Australia, but either way the bottom line is that having said certain things to either agency it would be hard to unsay them. FWIW, the situation of 457 employees is always precarious and in fact if you've been here so long, why didn't you go for PR as soon as possible?

 

Good luck, I hope it works out.

 

Cheers,

 

George Lombard