Human resources managers and business owners employing workers on 457 visas may be fined thousands of dollars if they fail to pay for employees’ travel, medical and recruitment costs, under new legislation before federal parliament.
Human resources managers and business owners employing workers on 457 visas may be fined thousands of dollars if they fail to pay for employees’ travel, medical and recruitment costs, under new legislation before federal parliament.
The Migration Amendment (Sponsorship Obligations) Bill 2007, which will come into effect in October if passed, outlines a range of civil penalties for businesses and individuals in breach of sponsorship requirements.
These include paying the minimum salary and keeping accurate records, as well as covering the costs of employees’ travel and recruitment, medical care, employment registration and migration agent fees.
Under the legislation, individuals may be fined up to $6,600 for each breach, while corporations face fines up to $33,000.
DLA Phillips Fox partner Alan Drake-Brockman said the amendments were a cause for concern.
“It is hard to see that it’s not going to add a further level of complexity to the whole system,” he said.
One issue is the requirement for employers to cover recruitment and migration agent fees.
“There is some doubt as to whether this extends to fees charged offshore,” Mr Drake-Brockman said.
“I think the intent is for the sponsor to pay, but what happens when the recruitment or government agency overseas has extracted the fee from the potential employee? The problem comes if you’re trying to recover wages from the employee that were earned in Australia. It needs to be cleared up.”
Mr Drake-Brockman said employers would have to pay costs that were not required for Australian workers, such as registration fees and licence fees for vehicles.
He said the new pro-rata minimum salary for employees working more than 38 hours a week was also likely to prove burdensome for businesses.
“The minimum salary levels set are not relying on the Workplace Relations Act,” Mr Drake-Brockman said.
“I think part of the problem is a bit of a disconnect between the immigration side and the industrial relations side.”
Australian Mines and Metals Association legal consultant Geoff Bull said while the current bill would mean additional costs for industry, there were more significant issues with the 457 visa system.
“One of the biggest problems we have is the inability to recover costs expended to bring people from overseas,” Mr Bull told WA Business News.
He said many businesses spent significant amounts of money bringing workers to Australia, only to have them move to a different employer.
Mr Drake-Brockman said the changes would further restrict the ability of employers to recruit overseas workers.
“For WA, you would think that we would want as flexible a system as possible, because we need a lot of people,” he said. “It seems now we have a very inflexible system, where the sponsor is going to be responsible for all on-costs.”
