Australia’s unemployment rate at 5.3 per cent in March 2010: ABS

The Australian unemployment rate remained steady at 5.3 per cent in March, the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced today. The ABS reported the number of people employed increased by 19,600 people to 10.988 million [...]

Philippine labour officials to visit Australia

A delegation from the Philippines’ Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will be in Australia 3-14 November for a mission to appraise the needs of Australia for skilled Filipino workers, the Philippine Consulate General in Sydney reported.

The delegation, headed by Labor Undersecretary Rosalinda Baldoz, former administrator of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), will comprise representatives from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and DOLE officials for international labor affairs and labor studies.

They will visit Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and Cairns.

POEA is the Philippines’ peak agency that regulates the hiring of Filipinos for overseas employment. OWWA provides programs that look after the welfare of expatriate Filipino workers. TESDA sets standards and provides the official certifications for technical skills.

The demand for certain categories of Filipino skilled workers prompted the Philippine Department of Labor to study a systematic and streamlined procedure for providing temporary stay workers for the Australian market, as well as to set into place the programs and services that will look after their welfare. #

Filipino nursing assistants treated shabbily, says workplace watchdog

The national workplace watchdog has labelled as reprehensible the exploitation of three Filipinos recruited as nursing assistants in Sydney. The Workplace Ombudsman says the treatment of one male and two female 457 visa-holders was nothing short of shabby [...]