2012 Olympic chiefs advertise for workers in Australia

FRESH fears over overseas workers surfaced today as it emerged that Olympics jobs with salaries of up to £65,000 are being advertised in Australia.

Just a day after the Standard revealed that foreign staff made up nearly 30 per cent of the workers on the 2012 site in Stratford, one Sydney company was highlighting the opportunities for well-paid posts.

Workgateways, which assists travellers from all over the world to get jobs in the UK, is advertising vacancies for handymen to landscape architects to work on the £9.3 billion Olympic park.

The jobs listed with the Sydney firm include a landscape leader to design projects for the Olympic Delivery Authority on a salary of £60,000 to £65,000, plus bonus and benefits.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that 29 per cent of the 3,046 workers on the site in December were from overseas. Eight per cent were Irish, and about 15 per cent from outside the EU. Romanians were until last year the largest foreign group, but many have been "quietly sacked" in the past two months during a clampdown on workers without visas.

The ODA claims that many of its foreign workers have lived in the local area for a number of years, even though they don't hold a British passport. Gordon Brown has claimed that the project is an important "growth generator".