Australia’s largest skydiving operator has been accused of seeking to replace local tandem instructors with overseas workers during ongoing pay negotiations, as industrial action continues across the country.
The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) claims Experience Co, which operates Skydive Australia at jump sites from Cairns to St Kilda and other locations nationwide, has applied to bring in overseas workers while proposing to pay visa holders less than full-time Australian employees.
According to the union, the company has also discontinued its local training program, which previously supported the development of new Australian tandem instructors.
Unionised tandem skydiving instructors are set to take further strike action from Friday morning, 20 February, through to Monday night, 23 February, following earlier stoppages in December and last week.
The AWU says members have not received a pay rise since 2022 and are seeking improved pay and conditions.
“During a cost-of-living crisis our members are saying ‘let’s make a deal’ - but instead the company is suggesting that they should accept terms that would see a foreign labourer on a visa earning less for doing the same job,” said Jonathan Cook, AWU National Organiser.
“We have current, local employees who want to be skydive instructors who are being grounded by an employer who’d rather bring in cheaper labour from overseas. It’s short-sighted and vindictive, and the AWU will be fiercely opposing the employer’s bid to the Department of Home Affairs.”
AWU National Secretary Paul Farrow also criticised the company’s approach.
“We have a major employer who has said they won’t train new staff and then go and apply for foreign labour instead. Now they are also saying they will also pay those visa workers less,” Mr Farrow said.
“There’s no skills shortage here - just a desperate bid by an employer that is seemingly happy to cut off training and development for its own employees.”
However, Experience Co CEO John O’Sullivan has rejected the union’s characterisation of the situation.
“The union and the company are currently negotiating an enterprise agreement. The merging of these two issues is distracting from the core issue – our desire to reach an agreement over pay and conditions that gets our Tandem Masters back in the air doing the job they love,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
“Currently, there is a global shortage of skydiving instructors so we have applied to the Federal Government for a Labour Employment Agreement to sponsor 15 instructors per year over the next three years. Our current instructor workforce is over 130.”
“These workers will be used to bolster our capacity to serve more customers. Our application also requests assistance in sponsoring current members of our team whose visa arrangements are about to expire.”
“The notion that we are somehow building an army of foreign workers to replace our existing team is frankly ridiculous, mathematically impossible and disingenuous. This issue has nothing to do with the EBA negotiations,” he said.
Mr O’Sullivan added that the company’s enterprise agreement proposal would position its instructors strongly within the industry.
“The current proposal before our workforce would make them amongst the best paid workers in the industry nationally.
“That’s the outcome the company wants. It’s also the outcome I believe the workforce wants.”
The enterprise agreement negotiations remain ongoing.