
Issue No 4		12 March 1999

Trades Hall

Deirdre Mahoney on Promoting Diversity

With 40 per cent of Australians either born overseas, or having at least one parent born overseas, overlooking the skills migrant workers bring with them to this country is no longer an option.


	Deirdre Mahoney

But many employers, unions and Australian-born workers still don't know what they can do to help. The overseas-trained doctors on hunger strike in front of NSW Parliament House have called attention to the issue recently, but what about the thousands of other workers who may be trained as chemists or engineers overseas, or who have contacts within overseas markets, but find language skills or lack of bridging courses is keeping them driving cabs or working on process lines in Sydney?

The NSW Department of Education and Training has, for a number of years, funded four diversity officers - two in the public sector, and one each with the employers and unions - whose jobs are to increase the recognition and uptake of migrants' overseas-learned skills.

While in the past the Labor Council's diversity officer has concentrated on raising awareness of what unions can do, both within their own structures and working with enterprises, this year the project has a more practical emphasis. In conjunction with the officer at Australian Business Ltd, Labor Council is bringing together three businesses of diverse sizes and functions, but all with a sizeable migrant workforce, with their workers. Together, the aim is that they will start to work differently, taking into account the ideas and the skills the migrant workers bring with them from overseas.

While the project is still in the early stages, the businesses we are targeting range in size from tens to hundreds of workers, and cover the manufacturing, confectionery and textile industries. The idea is to bring diverse groups together and have them look at the skills available within the workforce, and then use those skills to work differently (and more productively).

For example, a Sydney company of only 11 workers (but those 11 representing 6 nationalities) won a major Hong Kong contract from its Swedish rival simply because, with translating help from one of its Cantonese workers, it printed the contents of export boxes in English and Cantonese, instead of English alone, so they were easy to read on arrival in Hong Kong.

Sometimes, the company may just want diversity training, at times employees will need English language training, and in some cases it's just a matter of doing a skills audit of the workplace to make everyone aware of the wealth of experience within the workplace, and reveal hidden talents.

My job is also to make unions more aware of the need to be representative within. I've found too often as I've called around that most unions do not have up-to-date, accurate databases of their membership makeup, detailing which migrant groups they have, and how many migrant members.

One project we're considering is an audit of membership databases, so unions would know exactly who we are serving (instead of taking a guess, depending on their members' names!), and what their issues are. This will help us work towards becoming more reflective of these groups of people in our internal structures, and will help identify gaps for recruitment purposes.

I'm also keen to hear from unions who have large groups of migrant workers and have ideas for projects we could work on together, or want help in providing information within the union. Please call me on 02-9286 1631.

Deirdre Mahoney is the Labor Council's Special Projects Officer

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Issue 4 contents

Interview: Jennie George - Eyeing 2000
The ACTU President looks to the future and erects a few new signposts for her last 12 months in office and beyond.

Unions: Trade Unions Thinking Globally
How do you put people first in a global economy? That's the question for an international trade union conference in Sydney this week.

History: The Pioneers: Trade Unions Before 1850
Labour historian Greg Patmore looks at the early days of unions in Australia

Review: Opening Spaces For a New Labor
A new book by Sydney academic McKenzie Wark looks at how Labor must adapt to the popular culture.

Campaign Diary: On The Bus - A Tale Of Two Campaigns
As the State election campaign moves into full swing, Workers Online looks at how the management of the media by the two main parties is reflecting their strategies.

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