Australian Mining 24 January, 2012 Cole LatimerQueensland mines minister Stirling Hinchliffe has warned of mining job rorts.
He stated that jobseekers should do their research before singing up to agencies which claim to be a recruiting hub for the resources industry.
"Shonky businesses are
targeting jobseekers wanting to get a foot in the door in the mining industry," Hinchliffe said.
"We're hearing about a number of businesses who are overstating the level of assistance they are able to offer jobseekers.
"The last thing we want to see are the hopes - or the hip pockets - of jobseekers being exploited by unscrupulous operators.
"These operations - usually set up online or at suburban shopping centres - offer, for a considerable fee, to include the jobseeker's resume on an exclusive recruitment database that they claim is used by resources companies. As far as we can tell, the database is fictitious and we have no evidence to suggest that these companies have links to resources companies or their recruiters."
In September, David Macartney was charged with four counts of obtaining money by deception and two counts of attempting to dishonestly obtain money after
running a mining recruitment scam http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/news/accused-mining-scammer-free-on-bail in Queensland.
The charges allege he defrauded six people out of more than $32,000 after falsely recruiting them to work for a major Western Australian mining company.
The victims were all from the Sunshine Coast and aged from their 20s to 40s.
Police say Macartney posed as a representative from a high profile recruitment agency, and guaranteed people a job in the mining industry if they handed over their money.
They said they became alerted of the scam after officials from the Western Australian company expressed concern at Macartney using their name.
Hinchliffe went on to say that "jobseekers are very unlikely to gain employment as a result of using these firms.
"I urge anyone who has encountered a company like this and has concerns to contact Fair Trading on 13 74 68."
He went on to highlight legitimate mining job avenues such as the upcoming Work For Queensland exhibitions.
"A wide range of major resource companies have already signalled that they will again be represented at the Work For Queensland Expos, and this will be a great chance for jobseekers to make direct contact with companies looking for skilled workers," he said.
"Confirmed exhibitors to date include Thiess, Origin Energy, Downer EDI Mining, Skilled, WorkPac and a number of industry skills bodies."
An analysis into the resources industry shows there is a massive skills shortage.
The analysis comes amid new figures from the Bureau of Statistics showing while job creation across Australia was falling, the shortage in Western Australia and Queensland was still acute.
There will be a shortfall of 30 000 workers across mining in the next five years.