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Bell and Co. Discuss Migrant Recruitment Stand-Down Periods For Employers

Thursday 1 March 2018, 2:46PM

By Beckie Wright

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Andy Bell of Bell and Co, employment law lawyers, recently published an article on migrant recruitment stand-down periiods for employers. As we are aware, the New Zealand Government has introduced migrant recruitment stand-down periods for employers who breach immigration and employment law. The policy, as announced by Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse, came into force from 1 April 2017. Woodhouse said, “It is unacceptable that employers who exploit migrant workers are still able to recruit from the international labour market and disadvantage those employers who do the right thing.

Employers who receive an employment standards penalty will be included on a list provided to Immigration New Zealand, and Immigration New Zealand has published guidelines and criteria in April’s Amendment Circular. These guidelines aim to ensure that stand-down periods are applied fairly, consistently and transparently.

As Andy wrote, “Essentially, businesses must comply with all relevant employment and immigration laws in force in New Zealand, including paying appropriate minimum wage, meeting holiday and special leave requirements and only employing people who have authority to undertake that work under the Immigration Act 2009.

The stand-down period is enforced strictly. Once the Labour Inspectorate has good cause to believe that an employer is exploiting migrants, they will issue them with a notice, and the stand-down period begins. They are unable to employ migrants from this point. However, an immediate stand-down period could potentially punish employers who do not deserve it, and this can have hugely detrimental effects on reputation and consequently have a drastic economic impact. This is particularly applicable to industries that are dominated by migrant workers.

Andy continues, “Whilst exploitation is by no means justifiable and should certainly be punished, it can be argued that the automatic stand-down period is excessively punitive. In its place, a ‘three strikes’ system could be implemented to support the economic prosperity of New Zealand businesses. In this, the first two strikes could be accompanied by a hefty fine. On the third strike, the business would be faced with a lengthy stand-down period. This would achieve the same goals and only detriment the business of those that truly deserve it. Furthermore, the strict application of the stand-down period has the potential to harm the very people the policy strives to protect. For example, if a company in the middle of a stand-down period wishes to continue to employ a migrant who has to renew their visa, they will be unable to do this. This will result in the migrant being out of work and is counter-intuitive to the purpose of the policy.

To find out more about employment lawyers, law firms Wellington and personal grievance lawyers please go to http://www.bellandco.co .