Page 23 - Australasian Paint & Panel Jan-Feb 2023

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FAR LEFT: Glitz Park in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Ashley Jardine with the De Silva family.
LEFT: Jimney ???, Travis Arnold, Stuart Faid, Fix Auto, Ashley Jardine and Jim Damatopoulos from Fix Auto.
ABOVE: Body technicians in the Philippines testing facility.
Once you have the SBS you’re looking at approximately $15,000 including GST per worker. That’s the recruitment, the visa and migration agent costs per worker and then a one way flight to Australia. The whole process takes around six months.
Now that he’s got into his stride, Jar- dine is aiming to bring over 260 workers next year – body and paint techs, me- chanics, estimators and managers.
“Some people say six months is too long but they will be in the same situa-
tion in six months time as they are now even if they employ another technician tomorrow.
“The skills shortage has been around for a long time and it’s not going away. It’s not something that’s going to be fixed in the next five years – unless I can bring a 1,000 people a year in, that will probably fix it very quickly – and I’ll be out of business in a couple of years.
“A repairer that I spoke to a couple of weeks ago lost a guy that was getting $60 an hour, he was getting a rostered
day off every fortnight and he was get- ting a car and fuel, and the guy walked off to go somewhere else. He’s a really good repairer, he treats his staff really well; it was nothing to do with that, the guy just wanted more money.”
To be profitable you have to achieve a certain volume for a shop but many sim- ply don’t have enough technicians to get through the work.
“If they’ve got the staff they’re going to make more money, they’re going to keep the insurers happy, they’re going to get more work, it’s just... It’s a bit of a no- brainer really. Sure, it’s $15,000 but you’re going to be paying the guys a little bit less than what you might be paying the Australian guys and you’re going to make that up in the first 12 months.
“Most repairers are paying the over- seas workers $28-$35 an hour. With that wage they can still send money back to their families. For many, the incentive is to be able to bring their families over to Australia and send their kids to school and eventually university here.”
Ashley Jardine was interviewed for Paint & Panel’s podcast The Edge. To find out more about bringing in talent from overseas visit paintandpanel/pod- cast episode PAP094 or visit his web- site : bodyshoprecruit.com.au
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