Business welcomes new migration rules
The Government’s new immigration settings and earlier border reopening date will be a lifeline for some businesses, industry groups say.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday announced New Zealand’s border would completely reopen from July 31. There will also be major changes to immigration settings, to attract higher skilled and higher paid migrant workers.
Under the changes, employers looking to hiremigrantswill need to meet minimum wage requirements. For most sectors that would mean paying the median wage – currently $27.76 an hour. However, hospitality and tourism employers will be temporarily exempted and instead have to pay at least $25 an hour.
Businessnz chief executive Kirk Hope said it was positive that the Government had set a lower wage threshold for those sectors while they rebuilt after being hard hit by the pandemic.
Through an Accredited Employer Work Visa, employers will not need to provide as much information, can use their own recruitment processes to prove no New Zealanders are available for work, and Immigration New Zealand will endeavour to have these visas processed within 30 days once an employer is accredited.
Kirk said it was good to see the Government had set clear expectations for the service levels that businesses can expect from Immigration NZ.
Simplicity in policy settings and prompt processing would help make it as easy as possible for employers to navigate through the new work visa settings, he said.
‘‘New Zealand is facing
unprecedented skill shortages and businesses are taking extensive measures to grow our own skills in the workforce.’’
Reopening immigration was a critical component in ensuring
New Zealand businesses could survive and thrive, he said.
Restaurant Association chief executive Marisa Bidois said the industry desperately needed skilled workers and the reopening date came not a moment too soon.
With more tourists set to arrive, businesses need to be operating at 100% for the sector to recover, she said.
‘‘After months of advocacy raising awareness of the pressure on our industry caused by staff shortages, this decision will provide relief to many hospitality operators who have battled 18 months of uncertainty.’’
‘‘This decision will provide relief to many hospitality operators’’
Marisa Bidois
Restaurant Association chief executive