workforce
Dot the i’s and cross the t’s
Make sure you tick the right boxes
when employing overseas staff.
By Will Aldous
W
ith the huge growth in aged
care requirements in Australia,
finding the right staff is already
a challenge faced by many aged care
facilities – and it’s only going to get tougher.
Add to this the current debate on
staff ratios and the concern about the
availability of suitably trained nurses in
aged care, and recruitment is certainly a
challenge that will be faced by the industry
as a whole in the coming years.
Many aged care facilities are already
looking overseas to recruit staff – it’s an
obvious solution when suitable talent can’t
be found locally. However, what challenges
and dangers does this present to the
organisation and what can be done to
prevent them?
Employing overseas staff usually
involves dealing with a visa of some
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description – including temporary, student
and working holiday visas – and most
business managers, even HR managers,
are not visa experts. It’s not a reason to
shy away from the option of employing
workers from overseas, but it is essential to
do the required homework and make sure
all of the boxes are being ticked as required
by local authorities.
Recently, there have been changes to
the way visas are monitored in Australia
and the penalties for non-compliance
are significant, so it’s an important time
for organisations to review their internal
processes with regards to the initial
checking and ongoing monitoring of
the ‘right to work’ status of potential and
current employees.
We’ve been working with a range of clients
in the aged care industry on these issues and
we continually come across organisations
that are unaware or misinformed about key
aspects of visa workers. Here are five key
things you need to know to ensure your
organisation isn’t at risk:
• There are approximately two million
temporary visitors in Australia at any
given point in time. Think about the last
person you hired. Did you question that
person’s right to work in Australia? Doing
so should be a standard part of your
hiring procedure.
• There is a requirement to establish
a right to work in Australia and that
responsibility falls on the employer,
regardless of whether it’s paid/unpaid
work or if the employee is sourced
directly or via a HR contractor, labour
hire or referral company.
• Once an employee is hired, and proven
to be compliant, regular checks are
required to ensure that the employee’s
visa status is still active. For businesses
employing large numbers of visa
workers, this is virtually impossible
without some kind of automation/
assistance from technology to alert HR
to key review dates and issues.
• The government has a new Immigration
and Citizenship fraud reporting call
centre, which serves as an avenue for
anonymous whistleblowing on illegal
work, along with a new data-matching
initiative between the ATO and the
Department of Home Affairs, which aims
to crack down on foreign workers and
businesses taking advantage of current
migration legislation (knowingly or
unknowingly!).
• Penalties for non-compliance are
expensive and can now fall directly on
company directors. Employing illegal
workers carries significant penalties,
including fines for individuals of up to
$63,000 and/or five years’ imprisonment
and up to $315,000 for corporations per
illegal worker.
If you’re unsure about risks that may
apply to your situation, there are a few
things you can do:
• Contact Home Affairs and ask (or
visit their website). It’s far better to be
upfront and proactive about managing
the situation than to make an error
that the business will regret for years
to come. Note: The Department
of Immigration and Border
Protection (DIBP) was a government
department that was responsible
for immigration, citizenship and border
control (including visa issuance). It
has now been subsumed into the
Department of Home Affairs, which
combines its responsibilities with a
number of other portfolios.
• Contact a migration specialist. In
Australia, the Migration Act legislates that
it is illegal to provide migration advice,
unless the person providing such advice is
registered with the Office of the Migration
Agents Registration Authority (OMARA). ■
Will Aldous is co-founder and managing
director of CheckWorkRights, an Australian
automated visa checking system.