1,100 New Jobs for Indigenous Australians
27 July 2015 at 11:14 am
The Abbott Government has partnered with private facility services company, ISS, in an attempt to create 1,100 cleaning, catering, health and aviation jobs for Indigenous Australians.
Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Nigel Scullion, said the partnership was part of the Employment Parity Initiative (EPI) under which major Australian employers work with the Government to build their Indigenous workforce.
"The jobs with ISS will be located in at least 12 communities across Australia, in a range of industry sectors, from resources to aviation, health, catering and cleaning," Scullion said.
"Getting First Australians into work is one of the Government's highest priorities in Indigenous Affairs.
"The EPI encourages Australia's largest employers to increase their Indigenous workforce to three per cent – employment parity – to get 20,000 more First Australians into private sector jobs by 2020.”
Scullion said under the initiative the Government would tailor support that is available to employers to assist with any additional costs of employing and retaining Indigenous Australians, including people with extreme barriers to employment.
"Employment Parity contracts already signed with two other companies have secured an additional 1,700 jobs for Indigenous Australians and talks are continuing with other major employers,” he said.
"All payments are linked to 26-week outcomes and net increases in the number of Indigenous employees. This is the key to ending the endless cycle of training for training's sake."
ISS Australia and New Zealand CEO, Dane Hudson, said his company was proud to have been invited to take part in the initiative, in a move he hoped would improve employment opportunities for Indigenous Australians.
"We have finalised our first ever Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) which demonstrates our achievements over the past six years and recognises that we are now in a strong position to further our commitments,” Hudson said.
"The EPI, and our RAP, will enable us to continue to build and foster stronger relationships with these peoples and communities.”
