UNEMPLOYED tradesmen from the western suburbs said they feel betrayed after four Filipino workers were hired instead of them.
About 50 people have been holding a daily protest at the Western Treatment Plant in Werribee for more than two weeks.
The land, owned by Melbourne Water, has been leased to City West Water, which is building a salt reduction facility to pump recycled water throughout Wyndham.
One of the protesters, Daryl Harberger from Sanctuary Lakes, said he believed contractor Briagalong Engineering were using four workers from the Philippines who were being employed under 457 visas.
“We’re here to say that we’re ready to work and we want an opportunity,” Mr Harberger said.
“We don’t want to move interstate for work, they should be employing locals to do a local job.”
Mr Harberger said none of the protesters were against foreign workers, but they feared safety standards would slip as a result.
“We feel sorry for those four workers because they’re being worked like dogs and we would be horrified to think one of them could get injured,” he said.
The protesters said they had witnessed some of the workers welding in the rain, which they said was extremely dangerous.
While the protesters were not blocking the road accessing the site, a helicopter was being used to fly the four workers in for the past week.
Director of Briagalong, Chris Lupton, was not available to speak to Star last week.
Police Inspector Damien Christensen told Star that police were monitoring the situation while Mr Harberger said if he and his fellow protesters were asked to leave they would continue to protest in a different area until four local tradespeople were employed.
