THE skills shortage has forced New South Wales rail body Railcorp to spend $710,000 recruiting about 40 senior managers from overseas over the past four years.
The State Government-owned corporation pays the school fees of the recruits’ children, as well as their medical and personnel effects insurance as part of a recruitment package, ABC radio reported yesterday.
Each package, which Railcorp said is worth about $21,000, also covers the cost of airfares and short-term accommodation.
Railcorp spokesman Scott McIntyre defended the practice, saying the corporation needs to offer a generous package to lure highly-skilled staff to the corporation.
“There were people that were better qualified in international circumstances,” he said.
“In some cases, there weren’t people that could be recruited from Australia in particular positions, such as your signal and electrical engineers, where there is a worldwide shortage, particularly for those that have rail experience.”
McIntyre said less than 0.5% of 14,000 Railcorp employees in the past three years have been foreigners.
The New South Wales secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union Nick Lewocki said the practice highlights the lack of a long-term strategy in Railcorp to address the skills shortage.
“Why is taxpayers money being expended this way instead of expended on developing skills of young engineers coming out of university and existing managers that should be trained up and put through training programs to meet that skills requirement?” he said.
Published on www.supplychainlogisticsnews.net
