Visa rules slammed - An IT industry representative says minimum pay is too high to compete in global markets.

THE top representative of India's IT industry has slammed Australia's visa restrictions for skilled ICT migrants.

Australia mandates a higher minimum salary for computing professionals on skilled migrant visas than for other occupations under the same visa.

This runs the risk of pricing Australia out of the international labour market at a time when more than ever we need to import IT skills, said Kiran Karnik, president of the National Association of Software & Service Companies (NASSCOM).

The restrictions also hurt Indian companies that want to kick-start Australian-based IT businesses, Mr Karnik said.

The minimum salary for other jobs is $41,850, but for ICT professions it is $57,300.

"(This) issue is becoming quite serious," Mr Karnik said. "We are completely supportive of the concept of a minimum wage. But the way it works in the IT sector makes it extremely difficult and it may price Australia out of the labour market."

The base salary does not include typical additions such as superannuation, rental assistance, medical insurance or living-away-from-home allowances, which take the cost closer to $65,000, Mr Karnik said.

"That is fine for somebody you are getting in with five, six years' experience. But if you get in a fresh person at $65,000? You can't afford it. If you pay that person $65,000, the people with five years' experience must be paid even more, so it escalates upwards.

"You are going to destroy the whole model of trying to get even a little talent into this country. It will affect, and it may already be hurting, Australian companies."

It is widely reported that Australia's IT industry - as with IT industries worldwide - is suffering a serious skills shortage.

Federal Government figures show demand for ICT professionals since 2002 has tripled. Last month it reached an all-time high of more than 30,000 jobs nationwide, with less than half of those places expected to be filled.

However, unions claim using skilled migrant visas to plug that gap would erode conditions for local IT professionals and avoid the long-term issue of training a skilled Australian workforce. Australian Services Union NSW assistant secretary Sally McManus said there had been a recent reduction of good local jobs for Australian IT workers. Dropping the visa minimum wage would make it even harder for Australian IT workers who had been made redundant to find a new job, she said.

The Australian Information Industry Association also maintains the minimum salary is at the right level. In the nine months to March more such visas were granted to IT firms than in the whole previous year - a 35 per cent per annum boost in numbers.

"That clearly shows cost is not proving an impediment to companies accessing the program," AIIA general manager of strategy and policy James McAdam said. "ICT is a well-paid job. The department is trying to ensure it doesn't undercut the paying conditions of Australian workers, so we can encourage young people into the industry."

Mr McAdam disputed other surveys showing recent big pay hikes as a result of labour shortages. AIIA figures show overall IT pay going up about 5 per cent a year.

Mr Karnik said the IT skill shortage was hitting around the world, even India.

"We have a huge education system which is pushing out half-a-million engineers every year," he said. "But those suitable for this industry are a small fraction of that -which is why we have salaries going up by huge increments."

He says the IT talent pool seems to be shrinking in the UK, US, Japan and Australia, even though the industry is picking up, because of a lack of students. "Nobody wants to study technology," he said. "We are lucky in India so far, but a lot of people ask me, is the next generation of Indians also going to be interested in technology? Or will they want to do finance, business, humanities, literature?

"I look at this worldwide trend and it worries me: every developed country goes through this.”

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