Inquiry into Workforce Challenges in the Transport Industry
Information about the Inquiry
The Senate has referred an inquiry into workforce
challenges in the transport sector to its Employment, Workplace Relations
and Education Committee. The committee has broad terms of reference to
look at current and future employment trends in the industry; industry
needs and the skills profile of the current workforce; current and future
skill and labour supply issues; strategies for enhanced recruitment,
training and retention; and, strategies to meet employer demand in
regional and remote areas.
There are broad terms of reference
for this inquiry.
The purpose of the inquiry is:
- to address the scope of the problem of labour and
skill shortages affecting all sectors of the transport industry and the
likely consequences of serious labour shortages;
- to review labour supply research undertaken for
the transport industry, to canvass the views of industry, consumers and
unions in regard to recruitment and employment practices in the
industry;
- to alert Parliament to the projected labour
shortage in the transport industry which will seriously affect the
distribution of all goods and most travel services in the next ten
years; and,
- to make recommendations on Commonwealth-led
coordination of improved training delivery for the sector, and address
issues related to employment incentives and disincentives that are
characteristic of the industry.
The transport industry would claim that it is likely
to be one of the industries most seriously affected by projected skills
shortages and an impending work experience deficit. It is not only that
operations managers, truck drivers and train drivers are ageing and that a
high proportion will retire within seven years: it is that young people
are not entering the industry at anywhere near replacement rates. In fact,
young people appear to seriously underrate the opportunities the industry
offers in management and technology. The effects will become most obvious
with the retirement (and unfilled replacement positions) of control system
operators in storage managers and freight forwarders, train controllers
and other middle management operators. The committee will consider the
options open to transport operators to deal with the effects of these
challenges.
The transport industry is diverse. Road transport
carries about 70 per cent of goods. Leaving aside nation-wide listed or
state owned enterprises such as Toll, QR and Linfox and a few others, the
majority of businesses operate, for the most part, on a much smaller
scale. Many experience very tight profitability margins, and many
operators in the trucking business are said to be barely profitable, and
their difficulties are compounded by the likely continuing rise in fuel
prices. At another level, the historical lag in railway infrastructure
investment presents a different set of challenges, but even if this
investment was to be dramatically increased, the labour issue, and
specialised skill shortages would still loom as a serious impediment to
the speedier and efficient movement of freight and people.
The terms of reference will allow the committee to
hear views on continuing work practice issues in the operation of railways
and road transport, and their effects on recruitment and efficient use of
labour. The transport and logistics industries are concerned that they
present an image of offering only low-skilled employment. The committee
can consider, under one or a number of its terms of reference, efforts by
the industry to emphasise career structures and contemporary work
practices. It appears that the institutional and operational culture of a
transport entity has a strong bearing on recruitment and retention of
personnel at all levels, and likely to be an important area for the
committee's consideration.
Other modes of transport appear to be less affected
than are road and rail, but this impression may be influenced by their
relatively minor scale. There appear to be off-shore solutions to
maintenance and training in the aviation and maritime industries, but
there may be long-term disadvantages to such relance on foreign labour.
For instance, the committee heard during its skill shortages inquiry in
2003 that the decline in Australia's merchant marine was resulting in a
shortage of qualified port management personnel, including harbourmasters.
Another instance is the flow-on effect for general aviation and smaller
domestic carriers of off-shore aircraft maintenance.
The committee will be considering these issues, and
others which will emerge during the course of the inquiry and which may
not currently known or understood outside the industry.
The committee calls for submissions to be received by
31 January 2007. It is due to report to the Senate on the last sitting day in
June 2007.
Further information about the inquiry can be obtained
from the Secretary on 02 6277 3520. Information on the inquiry, and
submissions as they are received, will be posted on the website at:
https://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/eet_ctte/transport_employment/index.htm
The committee expects to report to the Senate on June 2007.
For further information, contact:
Secretary
Senate Standing Committees on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia