Lack of skilled crew leads to imported labour
Australian production companies are experiencing skills shortages and importing skilled labour from overseas.
- Published by David Knox
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Australian production companies are experiencing skills shortages and importing skilled labour from overseas, according to Screen Producers Australia.
A survey of 50 companies in documentary, factual, feature film and television drama found that 57% have experienced a skills shortage when crewing film and television productions.
Production accountancy is the area in which it was most difficult to find skilled staff, followed by the script department, interactive media, production management and post-production and visual effects.
Some companies were importing skilled labour, particularly editors.
Last year Australian Directors’ Guild Executive Director Kingston Anderson told TV Tonight he was aware some companies were employing Directors from overseas, especially those producing an enormous amount of material, very quickly.
“I’m getting calls from all around the country with people saying ‘Did you know there’s a director on this show and we don’t think they’ve come on a proper visa?’” he said.
“The issue is getting bigger because the volume is increasing and with the turnaround time they can’t get people quickly enough.”
Matthew Deaner said, “The survey highlighted not just the challenges associated with skills development and talent renewal, but also gives Screen Producers Australia a better understanding of what we can to do to assist our members in this area.
“It reinforces the need for a holistic approach that both nurtures new creative teams while also providing them with the business knowledge and production services that underpin the delivery of great content.”
Producers indicated that on the job training was the most important attribute when employing crew with 85% saying offering ongoing training.
80% wanted more government support options to assist professional development.
SPA is expanding its professional development program through Breakfast Briefings with producers, Masterclasses, legal and commercial advice and contracting templates.
12 Responses
I am not an industry insider, but i am guessing this is still a very male dominated industry? I know a woman who started doing training to be a camera operator (can’t call her a camera man lol), but dropped out because it was such a misogynistic atmosphere, she was the only female in her course. That was a decade ago though so i don’t know if much has changed since then?
There have also been the stories over the years one hears about from various tv networks about how women are treated. Making women feel more welcomed to join the industry might help fill the gaps, thats if there is any genuine shortage.
You can thank John Howard for coming up with the 457 visa, its only going to get worse under Abbott.
This situation has been gradually getting worse for many years and there is no hope of it getting better.
The biggest reason for this is the outsourcing of TV programs by the networks. There is little incentive to train casuals and run of show employees. There is also very little Tertiary training done outside Sydney and Melbourne.
Don’t worry … The Fair Work Ombudsman has its eyes on the companies who are abusers of the system
jobs are never advertised yes because of this reason but I think you will find the big networks tend to hire family members/ partners, sometimes friends of people who already work at the stations. I could go into a long list of examples Ive come across (especially at nine) but it does my head in thinking about it and actually depresses me so I wont.
The usual story, they provide training position to train enough people, then claim there are not enough people with experience so they have to employ cheaper OS labour on 457 visas.
We know what you’re doing, you’re employing cheap labour at the expense of local, experienced workers and eager graduates.
We know who you are and you’re sneaky little tricks.
You don’t advertise jobs and then claim there are no suitable locals to fill the jobs. Why doesn’t any one check this?
You ring everyone on your data base a couple of times a year and ask if they are free for the rest of the year.
Invariably, yes, we have some work but if we’re not entirely free, then oh dear, you can claim there’s no one available and you need a full time person from overseas.
You pay them less, we know that. If they complain you threaten to revoke their visas and send them home.
457 visas for the television industry are a joke.
I’ve worked with plenty of those on 457 visas. They are not experts in their field, they’re often under qualified/experienced and…
Overseas formats, made by Foreign owned Production Companies with Imported Foreign workers on 457 Visa’s and they call it “Australian content”??? Give me a break… And a shortage of accountants? Accountants – a transferable skill? Editors? and Production Managers? Transferable admin roles – are you serious? Here’s an idea – why not try upgrading juniors and giving them on-the-job training with the money spent on sponsoring and housing visa workers? Plenty of bright young media grads and juniors already working in the industry what’s the real reason? Tax break?
I wrote a big post explaining why this is happening but deleted it because the more I wrote, the more annoyed I got with the industry, so here’s a TL;DR:
Burn out. Production companies are expecting too much – 50 hour weeks minimum (some companies worse than others – timesheets for gods’ sake!)
Editors not wanting to re-cut eps 10 different ways because of a disconnect between Post, Seniors, EP’s and Network.
Ridiculously high expectations with cut backs on crew; cramming way too much into shoot days and short post schedules. Shooting AP’s FFS!
Lazy crewing – it’s easier to keep using the same people over and over again rather than interview new people – which is why a lot of shows made by prod companies all look the same – same voices in the storytelling.
But, I’m not saying hiring OS talent is a problem, they bring a wealth of experience and they’re great people. I…
Thats rubbish! There’s plenty of Austrailans that would love these jobs. They are just getting in cheaper labour.
Why is this allowed? There are so many unemployed media graduates out there. They can’t get jobs because they are told they aren’t experienced and companies have no interest in training them, they just want people that are ready to go. Now they are surprised that they are running out of skilled workers?
It’s the same issue in so many industries, especially engineering/ construction. There needs to be better legislation that says you can’t import workers unless you do a fair share of training up graduates.
There are so many unemployed TV professionals in our country! Just unbelievable how shortsighted thinking destroyed our industry.
I just worked on a show where more than half of the crew were English and a quarter were Kiwis. The Australian staff are being overlooked because they ‘are not the right fit’ or ‘too expensive’. There are plenty of Aussie freelancers in those roles looking for work but not being hired by ‘foreign owned production companies’. There is a skills shortage because there is no training for local workers, big companies fill schedule holes with visa workers and then release them. The Networks are the only places that employ locals and train them. Thank god for Seven and Nine.