Accredited Employer regime: Success for New Zealand employers?

Associate Vienna Tse and Senior Associate Rabiah Khawaja from Cavell Leitch evaluate how successful the Accredited Employer Work Visa system has been, one year into its implementation.

Through the accreditation of employers, the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) system seeks to mitigate risks associated with migrant exploitation and promote fair employment practices. Now, more than a year into its implementation, the critical question arises: have the policy developers successfully achieved their intended goals?

According to Immigration New Zealand (INZ), as of 9 October 2023:

• 29,295 employers obtained accreditation

• 90,662 AEWV applications have been approved

• 1,157 post-accreditation checks have been undertaken, and an additional 1,345 are under way

• 81 employers have had their accreditation revoked, and 24 have had their accreditation suspended.

Integrity Of The Aewv System

INZ has stated it aims to carry out about 15 per cent of post-accreditation checks. However, as of 9 October 2023, only 1,157 post-accreditation checks have been completed. This means that less than 4 per cent of verifications have been carried out since the policies were implemented in May 2022. With the meagre percentage of verifications being made under the AEWV system, its integrity has been called into question.

Deceleration Of Processing Job Check Applications

“Currently, most job checks are taking more than 5–6 weeks for processing."

The AEWV scheme is supposed to make it easier for employers in New Zealand to hire skilled migrants where genuine skills or labour shortages exist. However, the reality is that all employers are required to go through several verification steps before they are able to employ a skilled migrant, including obtaining accreditation, advertising the role, if required, and applying for a job check.

While the processing timeframe for a job check application is about 10 working days, many employers have experienced substantial delays in job check applications since August 2023. Currently, most job checks are taking more than five-to-six weeks to process, and the processing timeframe information has now been removed from INZ’s website.

The lack of specific details about these substantial delays is causing significant disruptions for businesses that have aimed to hire migrants with meticulously planned recruitment timelines in accordance with INZ’s stipulated processing times for job checks.

“Job check applications should be for roles where there are current vacancies."

Furthermore, INZ recently confirmed that job check applications should be for roles where there are current vacancies. It means employers are not allowed to apply for additional job tokens for future possible work, even though hiring needs are foreseeable.

The complicated process, along with exceptionally long processing times, has created significant obstacles for employers trying to navigate the AEWV system and hire skilled migrant workers to meet their needs. Subsequently, this has led to many businesses experiencing financial difficulty and other consequences as a result of not being able to be adequately staffed.

Migrant Workers Are Wrongly Penalised

“Accredited employers are no longer allowed to use 90-day trial periods in employment agreements."

The AEWV is also designed to reduce the risk of migrant exploitation and promote fair employment practices. To encourage accredited employers to treat migrants fairly and only recruit someone when they have a genuine labour need or skills gap to fill, INZ recently announced that accredited employers are no longer allowed to use 90-day trial periods in employment agreements when hiring migrant workers on AEWVs.

Despite the new rule aimed at fostering fair treatment, the ongoing job check delays place migrant workers in precarious positions. Because migrant workers need their prospective employer to share a job token with them before they are able to fill out the online AEWV application form, this impractical design contributes to an unintended consequence, where migrant workers are not allowed to submit their AEWV application form until the job check application for their position is approved by INZ.

Those migrant workers whose current visas will expire soon suffer from a significant deceleration in the processing of job check applications. In the absence of valid job tokens, these workers have no choice but to leave New Zealand upon the expiration of their current visas. This uncertainty acts as a deterrent, discouraging skilled talents from considering New Zealand as an attractive destination.

Moreover, when INZ places a non-compliant employer on the stand-down list, innocent migrant workers also face penalties because they cannot alter their employment or employer after submitting their AEWV application unless they withdraw their initial application and resubmit a new one. Even if a migrant worker manages to secure a new job offer from a compliant-accredited employer, no consideration is given to the worker’s personal circumstances, particularly when there is no fault of their own. This means migrant workers are unfairly penalised due to the inflexible and impractical nature of these policies.

Conclusion

We all acknowledge that no policy will ever be perfect. While the new government has outlined various forthcoming immigration policies, a critical question remains as to whether the policymakers acknowledge the fact that 91 per cent of organisations in New Zealand continue to face an acute labour shortage. What New Zealand employers genuinely desire and require is a streamlined approach that provides stable and consistent immigration policies. These policies could ultimately facilitate them to resolve the labour shortage and establish a smooth pathway for hiring skilled migrant workers in New Zealand.

“While the processing timeframe for a job check application is about 10 working days, many employers have experienced substantial delays in job check applications."

Vienna Tse is an Associate in the Cavell Leitch immigration team. She has a sound working knowledge of immigration law, regulations and policies. She has an extensive amount of experience in the employer accreditation scheme and excels at understanding her clients’ needs and developing practical immigration strategies and solutions. In particular, Vienna understands that immigration matters can be confusing and stressful; therefore, she listens to people’s needs, simplifies the process and delivers pragmatic advice.

Rabiah Khawaja is a Senior Associate in the immigration team and leads the immigration practice at Cavell Leitch. Before her career as a lawyer, Rabiah worked as an immigration officer with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for over six years. Before joining Cavell Leitch, Rabiah worked as an Associate and Senior Associate for a well-known migration law firm in Melbourne. Being of Pakistani descent, she is fluent in Urdu/Hindi and has a deep understanding of current and ongoing migration issues. She is passionate about social justice, human rights and refugee and asylum seeker issues.