Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE) is holding employers accountable for committing immigration violations, including employing people in breach of their visa conditions or who are unlawfully in New Zealand, with 142 infringement notices issued to 139 employers, leading to a total of $431,000 in penalties in the first year of the Immigration Employment Infringement scheme.
The top three industries to receive the most infringements are construction, hospitality, and the beauty industry.
Infringements can be issued for employing people in breach of their visa conditions, employing a person unlawfully in New Zealand, or failing to comply with a 10-day information request.
Acting General Manager, Immigration Compliance and Investigations, Michael Carley says that the scheme has enabled MBIE to tackle non-compliance more effectively and swiftly, ensuring that employers are aware of their responsibilities when it comes to hiring migrants.
“Before the scheme, there were limited tools for us to use to address lower-level immigration offending,” says Carley. “Now, employers can no longer claim they are unaware of the rules of hiring migrants, nor can they rely on their past compliance to escape the consequences. There are serious penalties for those who fail to follow to immigration laws.”
Most of the infringement fees have ranged from NZD$1,000 to $3,000, but notably, two of the largest infringements issued during the year were for $27,000 to a business in the mining industry for underpaying a significant number of migrant workers, and $18,000 to a Wellington construction company who was found to have five migrants working in breach of their visa conditions, and a migrant who was unlawfully in New Zealand.
Michael Carley acknowledges that many employers do the right thing, however there is still a small number of employers who are not following the rules.
“When hiring migrants, it’s really important that employers check that their visa allows them to work in New Zealand. We strongly advise that all employers use our Visa View tool to verify the work rights of prospective employees. Taking the time to conduct this check could help avoid significant financial penalties and being stood down from hiring migrants for a time.”
Infringements also mean employers are unable to hire migrants for a minimum six months depending on the number of infringement notices the employer receives.
Stand-down periods include: 6-month stand-down for a single infringement notice, an extra 6-month stand-down for each subsequent infringement notice and a 12-month maximum stand-down for multiple notices issued at one time.
Employers can, however, hire migrants on open work visas while on the stand-down list.
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