Accredited Employer Work Visa scheme: A breeding ground for employment exploitation
According to Immigration lawyer Harris Gu, the new Accredited Employer Work Visa scheme is a breeding ground for employment exploitation.
The Accredited Employer Work Visa scheme which was created for the purpose to combat the migrant exploration is turned into the breeding ground for the employment exploitation.
According to The new Accredited Employer Work Visa scheme, the accredited employers are exempted to pay the median wages to the migrant workers now these employers are asking the existing staff for a pay cut.
They are being forced for the pay cut to match the minimum salaries of migrant workers which they have now access to.
According to Immigration lawyer Harris Gu, the employers are considering laying off the staff members unless they agree to the reduction of the wages.
This policy is becoming the breeding ground for employment exploitation. An Auckland restaurant worker, said that her employer asked her to sign a new contract for $24 per hour while her earlier contract was $28.50 an hour.
New Zealand has a minimum wage of $21.20 and a median wage of $27.76 an hour. Employers are aware of the employment law obligations but still they are taking risks while cutting the wages of the existing staff.
They believe that only a small number of migrant workers can complain about them and also cutting wages is economically viable, Mr Gu said.
The new Accredited Employer Work Visa scheme will provide them with easy staff replacement with migrant workers.
If there wasn’t the current Accredited Employer Work Visa scheme, these exploitations would not have happened.
The new Accredited Employer Work Visa scheme was implemented with good intentions but it was not planned properly and it was executed very poorly to cause such explorations.
This scheme was created for the purpose so that the kiwis would get first line jobs and their reliance on low skilled migrant workers would reduce, according to Nicola Hogg, INZ’s general manager border and visa operations.
Another purpose for AEWV is that only accredited employers would be able to employ the migrant workers so that migrant worker exploration would reduce.
Hogg also said that they haven’t received any formal complaints regarding this and if there is such a problem the workers can complain on the inz.complianceinvestigations@mbie.govt.nz
