Fly In Fly Out – It’s a matter of choice

GUEST COMMENTARY: The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia (CME) has told both Federal and State  Government’s they need to be careful about implementing recommendations from the Regional Australia Committee report into Fly In-Fly Out (FIFO), warning any changes could have unintended detrimental consequences to industry and communities in Australia.

CME chief executive Reg Howard-Smith said his body supports recommendations which call for further evidence-based research and allow for a greater understanding of the unique work practice.

 

“With more than $175 billion worth of resource projects either under consideration or being constructed, access to a skilled workforce, along with the high cost of doing business in Western Australia are major challenges for the sector,” Howard-Smith said.

“FIFO is about providing choice for workers and in a competitive labour market, employee choice is paramount.

“Choice of what job they do, who they work for and importantly of where they choose to live.

“FIFO and residential employment are complementary, not supplementary approaches in a total workforce management package.”

FIFO has been a n established work practice in the WA resource sector for so long it is considered by many to be as normal a way of getting to work as catching a bus from the corner from your street.

The system is expected to grow in the years ahead with many employees opting for FIFO rosters over relocating to regional WA.

CME through its recent State Growth Outlook found the sector’s workforce in WA is almost 120,000 with approximately 55 per cent or 66,000 employed on FIFO rosters.

Howard-Smith said recommendations which added to the cost of doing business should be discarded.

“Unfortunately we are becoming a less attractive place to develop resources projects when compared with global resource rich nations and investment may be driven to other, lower cost, regions because of additional layers of taxation and charges which are continuing to drive up cost for doing business,” he said.

“Attraction and retention of employees would be severely impacted if companies attempted to force residential employment on their employees.

“Further, if FIFO was highly restricted or residential employment mandated, local communities and government would experience severe pressures on infrastructure and services.

“While at the same time valuable resource projects would not find a skilled local workforce and may not even proceed.”