Venu Menon
Wellington, July 1,2023
The Worker Protection (Migrant and Other Employees) Bill has passed into law.
“This is another positive step towards addressing migrant worker exploitation in Aotearoa New Zealand, where we’re taking action to protect our migrant workers from exploitation,” Priyanca Radhakrishnan, Associate Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety, said.
“The Worker Protection Bill brings in new infringement offences, providing tools to target breaches at the lower level. This is important because lower-level breaches often lead to more serious exploitation,” the minister said in a statement on June 29.
Radhakrishnan had tabled the Bill in Parliament on 18 October 2022.
Under the new legislation, those convicted of migrant exploitation and people trafficking will now be “disqualified from managing or directing companies in New Zealand, helping prevent people from using corporate structures to exploit migrants.”
The minister said it was necessary to ensure that employment and immigration systems “work well to protect the conditions of every employee in New Zealand, including migrant workers.”
She highlighted the measures adopted from the 2020 Temporary Migrant Worker Exploitation Review, which included a dedicated 0800 phone number and reporting tools, the Migrant Exploitation Protection Visa, and liaison support services for the victims of migrant exploitation.
In particular, the Migrant Exploitation Protection Visa enabled migrants to leave “exploitative [workplace] situations quickly and to be able to remain lawfully in New Zealand.”
“These measures had significant uptake and positive results,” the minister pointed out. “However, migrant exploitation is an area which needs ongoing vigilance.”
While acknowledging that there was no silver bullet for solving the problems associated with workplace exploitation of migrants, the changes that have been made “go a long way to address this issue.”
The new legislation is aimed at stamping out migrant worker exploitation in New Zealand. It seeks to do this by introducing a “fit for purpose offence and penalty regime” to empower regulators.
The government had committed $50 million to support efforts by Employment NZ and Immigration NZ to curb exploitation.
The legislation amends the Immigration Act, the Employment Relations Act and the Companies Act to bring in fines and penalties to deter employers of migrant workers from non-compliance with their obligations under both immigration and employment law.
The legislation empowers immigration officers and labour inspectors to “deal with lower-level offending before it becomes more serious.”
Under the legislation, employers who have supported a visa are obliged to produce documents relating to a migrant worker’s employment and wages to “verify that those employers are actually complying with their obligations,” such as paying migrant workers the salary quoted in their employer-supported visa application.
Until now, employers were not time-bound to respond to requests for information from the regulators. Employers who infringe the new 10 working days’ time-frame to furnish information will be issued infringement notices.
Hitherto, Immigration NZ had no mechanisms to tackle “low-level offences.”
However, when it was first introduced in October 2022, the Bill was faulted by the Opposition National Party on the grounds that it would not solve problems related to the resourcing of Immigration NZ and compliance officers.
While “tentatively supporting the Bill, with great trepidation and many concerns,” National’s Erica Stanford told Parliament the Bill allowed “desk-based” officials to request wage and employment documents from employers, and empowered them to slap fines.
Stanford said the Bill went after the “very low-level offending.” She made the pitch that “the majority of employers want to do the right thing but are confused by the complex changes in Immigration law in recent years.”
However, Minister Radhakrishnan wholeheartedly supported the new legislation, saying, “I’m acutely aware, every day, that it’s such a privilege to be part of a Government that will take action to make life better for those who need it.”
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington
