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Member of the audience: “It doesn’t seem to be recognised that in the IT sector about 70% of the cost of placing the contractor is in marketing and finding the opportunity, but more importantly in finding an individual with such rare skills. That being the case it seems almost naive to believe, because the fees and the mark up do tend to be higher, that the quarantine period is going to allow our sector of the industry to recoup its investment. I am equally concerned, in fact more concerned, with the temp to 3rd party situation than the temp to perm because having incurred the major costs in finding or identifying and introducing that individual, it is going to be so tempting for any employer to say that’s a nice job you have done, and after a four week period say, we will now transfer that person to some "pay rolling" situation where they only have to recover the few percent that is necessary to pay for the individual.”
 Paul Hadley: “I do understand that point. We have had a lot of discussions with ATSCo and IT agencies directly about recovering recruitment costs. As the Minister’s speech suggests, the government fully accepts that the bureau should be able to recoup the investment that they have put into recruiting and finding workers. However, the government also wishes to ensure that there is some flexibility in the labour market and, given that, agencies have said that they are not prepared to guarantee to provide work to workers. The government is not very comfortable if the bureau attaching a price to a worker for long periods after hiring has ceased. The industry, if it offers reasonable transfer terms or reasonable hiring extension periods should be able to recoup its costs. There is no reason why hirers should have any incentive to recruit through means of quarantine, because there should be a ready- made means of transfer for them either through payment of the transfer fee or through the hiring extension option.”
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Richard Powell
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