Last year, WorkforceXS Nowra and Habitat Personnel wanted to increase Indigenous employment and together they launched the South Coast Construction Indigenous Employment Strategy.

WorkforceXS Nowra managing director Ross Thompson set a goal of 15 per cent indigenous employment.

A year later the benchmark at the labour hire business was exceeded with 15.77 per cent.

Before he moved to Australia as a 14-year-old, Mr Thompson grew up in South Africa near the end of Apartheid.

The disadvantages he saw in South Africa combined with unemployment issues in the Shoalhaven are driving his passion to make a change.

“Obviously there is a huge Indigenous community within the Shoalhaven and I think by right, as a proper social responsibility of any employer in the Shoalhaven, we should target indigenous employment because it is such a high rate of unemployment in the Indigenous community,” Mr Thompson said.

“Our indigenous population is about 10 to 15 per cent in the Shoalhaven … part of us being a true community responsible business we should be targeting indigenous employment.

“It’s businesses that are going to make the change to that, [it’s] not the government that’s going to make a change.

WorkforceXS employs casuals, yet staff receive full-time hours and are paid superannuation, above the award wage and casual loading to compensate for no sick or annual leave benefits.

The changing dynamic of construction work is the main reason Mr Thompson’s staff aren’t employed full-time, he said.

Old Erowal Bay resident Josh Madden is one indigenous employee who says he doesn’t want to leave WorkforceXS after working on the new Burrill Lake bridge since October.

“[The pay] is good for what it is. Getting plenty of work, haven't had trouble there. It’s been really good I’ve been lucky,” Mr Madden said.

“It’s been a good group of people to work around.”

The 29-year-old has worked on civil construction projects his “whole life”. He says the nature of the work and working close to home are great incentives to stay on.

“There has been times in the past where I’ve had to move around, that’s kind of why I like the Workforce thing because it stays in the region, where I can still stay where I want to live,” he said.

“I got told I was only going to be here for six weeks, but they’ve ended up liking me I guess and I suppose I’ll be here until the end.”

Future large infrastructure projects such as the Berry to Bomaderry link, Nowra and Batemans Bay bridges give Mr Madden stability.

“There’s a fair bit of work coming up and I’m not worried in that part at all, which is good.”

WorkforceXS employs 150 staff across the construction and health care industries.

However, the Australian Council of Trade Unions wants to completely overhaul the labour hire system by creating a national labour hire licensing system.

“Labour hire companies simply rent out workers for lower pay and less job security. It’s got to stop,” ACTU secretary Sally McManus said.

“We need to completely overhaul labour hire companies by creating a national labour hire licensing system to ensure they are not cutting wages and conditions.

“Workers need protection from unfair dismissal by the host employer, and the ability to bargain with the company so they can win fair pay rises and gain secure work.”

If the ACTU had its way and put a stop to labour hire services like WorkforceXS, the net result would be locals missing out on work, Mr Thompson said.

“Construction companies from Sydney and Canberra would bring their own workforce down to complete the works, they would rent houses out and they would not employ locals because the fact is they are only going to be here for the short term to finish a certain point of the project,” he said.

“Whereas at the moment, they are looking at me with a ready workforce that are skilled, guys that can actually do the work under their supervision.”