AEWV Government review

The Government is reviewing the AEWV work visa to see if they can find out why it has not fixed the issue of migrant exploitation. Of course the visa is not the issue, but there is a strong indication that they are focusing on the employer-led aspect of it as providing a potential for some employers to use this to their unfair advantage. This is a fair assumption to an extent, and certainly bad employers have more opportunity than they would otherwise, but in the end it will just make it harder for everyone.

So what is going to happen?

The Government is tightening restrictions on employers, and especially lower skilled occupations. INZ will continue to waste more time and money on compliance, and add another level to employer accreditation to check compliance more thoroughly. 

We are seeing more inspections and more need for evidence supplied with accrediation applications, and also many more declines than before. For renewals this was predicted anyway and the main reason why initial accreditations were given a light touch was because INZ did not (and still does not) have the capacity to process such a large number of applications so quickly. It was predicted that on renewal, things would have settled down after the border reopening and INZ capacity would be able to handle more indepth checking, which we are starting to see now.

How will this affect employers?

INZ wants all employers who hire migrant workers to be accredited, so accreditation is still  achievable in terms of business size or business performance, but compliance with immigration and employment law is being checked more, and there is more investigation into where employees come from and how they are onboarded, etc. Changes are affecting employers, accreditation and work visas across the board, and all processes have become more difficult and slower.

So, what should you do?

As always a solid application will go through faster than one that triggers all kinds of alerts. For employers, collecting evidence of continued compliance will be most important, as well as making sure not to get caught out by things that may be normal for Kiwi workers but could trigger compliance warnings for migrants. For example salaried workers tend to be expected to work all hours necessary without overtime pay, and this is fine for Kiwis, but INZ will calculate the pay rate at salary divided by actual hours worked which could put the worker under INZ's wage thresholds or under the rate on the visa, which will fall under migrant exploitation.

In the end the best advice for both employers and workers concerned about remaining compliant and getting visas, job checks and accreditation through quickly and solidly, is to get a professional to manage this for you.