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“Downturn in Australia’s economy drives protectionist changes to employer-sponsored visas”

November 28, 2020 / Leave a comment

From 1 October 2020 a number of changes to Labour Market Testing requirements will take place to temporary and permanent employer sponsored visas. The Department of Home Affairs (Home Affairs) has said the aim of these changes is to ensure employers are prioritising the hiring and retention of Australian citizens and permanent residents.

The visa subclass impacted by these changes include the:

482 Temporary Skills Shortage (TSS) Visa,
494 Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) (SESR)
186 Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) Visa and
187 Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS) Visa.

We have provided an overview of the changes to each visa subclass below.

482 TSS Changes

From 1 October 2020 employers must place 3 ads each running for 4 weeks. At least 1 of these ads must be with JobActive, the Australian Government’s recruitment website. The ads can run concurrently.

Advertising will not be required where an exemption (below) to labour market testing applies.

Exemptions to labour market testing

Where International Trade Obligations preclude Australia from imposing Labour Market Testing;
Intra-corporate transferees where a person is transferring from a company operating overseas to an associated entity in Australia;
If the annual earnings of the position are at least $250,000;
Nominations required by change of business structure or change of earnings of nominee;
Positions requiring persons with internationally recognised skills in sport, academia or cuisine;
Medical Practitioners in ANZSCO Minor Group 253, except ANZSCO 253111 and 253999;
Ambulance Officers and Paramedics in ANZSCO Unit Group 4111.

Businesses lodging applications prior to 1 October 2020 will not be required to advertise on JobActive but can use this if they wish. Currently, 2 job ads must be run for 28 days each unless an exemption applies.

The contents (below) that must be included in job ads remains unchanged.

Contents of job advertisements

position title
full-time
skills and experience required for the position
duties of the role
name of business or recruitment agency; and
annual remuneration as specific number or a range (unless above $96,400).

186 ENS/187 RSMS Changes

Home Affairs has updated its website to advise that it will be scrutinizing 186 ENS/187 RSMS visas more closely. No date has been released for this to take effect. We recommend all new 186 ENS/187 RSMS applications include additional information to address the higher level of scrutiny Home Affairs has announced.

When assessing186 ENS and187 RSMS visas Home Affairs will look at the businesses records for the last 12 months to determine whether roles similar to that nominated in the visa application have been:

Retrenched
Had work hours, pay or conditions reduced

In addition, Home Affairs has also said it will more closely review:

Whether the employer has employed a temporary visa holder on conditions less favourable than Australians;
Recruitment of a temporary visa holder is beyond the ordinary scope of the business. [eg: a restaurant nominating an Accountant]
Whether there is a genuine need for the position.

The above 3 criterion are already assessed as part of 186 ENS/187 RSMS applications. It is likely Home Affairs are re-iterating these as they will be looked are more closely in the future.

When establishing that there is a genuine need for a position Home Affairs has said it expects businesses to have advertised the role on JobActive. No information has yet been released about the format or length of the advertising. We will provide an update as more information becomes available.

Conclusion

Australia is enacting protectionist migration legislation as a result of the economic impact of Covid-19. We recommend all employers review their hiring practices and amend their labour marketing testing procedures to include JobActive. All employers should also keep records for at least 12 months of any redundancies or reductions in work hours or terms and conditions of employment for its staff.

Visiting from Overseas? Get your health insurance visa letter instantly

September 26, 2020 / Leave a comment

The Temporary Skill Shortage 482 visa

You are required to have health insurance for yourself and any family members that are travelling with you on the 482 visa.

To be granted a 482 visa, you must make adequate arrangements for health insurance for yourself and your family members travelling with you. All of our working overseas visitor covers fulfil this requirement; so once you have applied for cover with us, we will email you a health insurance visa letter to support your 482 visa application.

The Temporary Graduate 485 visa

All our working overseas visitor covers meet the 485 Department of Home Affairs (DHA) health insurance requirement.

As part of the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) you are responsible for all of your health costs while you are in Australia. You will need to switch your Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) to an Overseas Visitors Cover (OVC) before your OSHC expires.

Find out more https://www.bupa.com.au/migration-agents/ckzdhhevekyyrebfobq

Adequate health insurance for visa holders

February 18, 2020 / Leave a comment

https://www.bupa.com.au/migration-agents/JflVGUjvK0WNI0kBioi1RA

You are financially responsible for any health debts you incur in Australia. We might consider any outstanding health debts you have if you apply for a visa in future.

If you are not eligible for Medicare, any treatment you have in a hospital or emergency room will be as a private patient. Most temporary visa holders are not eligible for Medicare.

For routine medical treatment in Australia, out-of-hospital treatment from a general practitioner is normally the most cost-effective solution.

We offer a guide to the minimum level of health cover that will mitigate your financial risk but your healthcare costs are unlikely to be covered completely. You will still be liable for the balance of your healthcare costs.

Consider whether a higher level of cover than we specify here might be more suitable for you.

You can be charged a patient contribution, excess or co-payment for treatment by either or both:

your insurance fund
any hospital you are treated at

Benefit levels

You should get cover that provides benefits at least equivalent to the following.

Public hospital

For admitted patient treatment, a benefit equal to the state and territory health authority gazetted rates for ineligible patients for:

overnight and day only hospital accommodation (all costs including: all theatre, intensive care, labour wards, ward drugs)
emergency department fees that lead to an admission
admitted patient care and postoperative services that are a continuation of care associated with an early discharge from hospital

This includes all admitted treatments covered by the Medicare Benefit Schedule (MBS).

Surgically implanted prostheses

For no-gap prostheses and gap-permitted prostheses as listed in the Private Health Insurance (Prostheses) Rules 2007, a benefit at least equal to 100 per cent of the minimum benefit amount listed.

Pharmacy

For all PBS-listed drugs, prescribed according to PBS-approved indications, that are administered during and form part of an admitted episode of care, a benefit equal to the PBS-listed price in excess of the patient contribution.

This includes the cost of PBS-listed drugs administered post-discharge if they form part of the admitted episode of care.

Medical services

For admitted medical services with an MBS item number, 100 per cent of the Medical Benefits Schedule fee or less if the patient is charged less.

Ambulance services

100 per cent of the charge not otherwise covered by third-party arrangements for transport by ambulance provided by, or under an arrangement with, a government-approved ambulance service when medically necessary for admission to hospital, emergency treatment onsite, or inter-hospital transfer for emergency treatment.

This includes inter-hospital transfers that are necessary because the original admitting hospital does not have the required clinical facilities. It does not extend to transfers due to patient preferences.

Informed financial consent

The insurer will allow hospitals to check members’ eligibility so members are able to give informed financial consent when they are admitted.

Waiting periods

To comply with the minimum level, the only waiting periods that can be applied are:

12 months for pre-existing conditions applied in a way that is consistent with Section 75-15 of the Private Health Insurance Act 2007
2 months for psychiatric, rehabilitation and palliative care, whether or not the condition is pre-existing

Excluded treatments

To comply with the minimum level of health insurance, the only admitted patient treatments that may be excluded are:

assisted reproductive treatments
elective cosmetic treatments
stem cells, bone marrow and organ transplant

Insurance policies may also exclude:

treatment provided outside Australia, including necessary treatment en route to or from Australia
treatment arranged in advance of the insured’s arrival in Australia
services and treatment which are covered by compensation or damages provisions of any kind

Insurers don’t have to exclude these treatments. They can choose to cover them or not.

Global annual benefit limits

To comply with the minimum level of health insurance, the per-person, per-annum benefit must not be less than AUD1,000,000.

Out-of-hospital cover

For treatment that relates to medical services with an MBS item number, cover up to the Medical Benefits Schedule fee.

Except where otherwise stated, the insurer can decide whether to provide cover for out-of-hospital treatment. The insured person can choose to purchase this additional cover or not.

Excess, co-payment or patient contribution

The insurer can decide to charge an excess, co-payment or patient contribution. Excess, co-payment and patient contributions can be charged on either an annual or per-separation basis.

Portability

When determining waiting periods, insurers must recognise previous length of membership on a policy held with another Australian insurer that meets the minimum standards.

That is:

when transferring between Australia-based insurers where the customer has been a member of the previous fund for more than 12 months, waiting periods of no longer than 12 months will apply to the higher level of benefits
when transferring between Australia-based insurers where the customer has been a member of the previous fund for less than 12 months, any unserved waiting periods must be completed with the new fund. If increasing the level of cover or benefits, further waiting periods of no longer than 12 months will apply to the higher level of benefits. These waiting periods are to be served concurrently

To comply with the minimum level of health insurance, the insurer must agree to:

grant a member who transfers between Australia-based insurers continuity of cover for up to 30 days from the date they leave their previous insurer
provide members who terminate their policy with a clearance certificate, approved by the Department of Home Affairs, within 14 days of the termination date or the date they were notified of the termination, whichever is later

Buy-out clauses

To comply with the minimum level of health insurance, a policy must not contain a buy-out clause that would have the effect of terminating the insurer’s liabilities in exchange for a predetermined lump sum payment.

Arrears

The insurer will allow the insured person 60 days from the last financial date of membership to pay a premium without terminating the membership.

Insurers do not have to pay for treatment received during any arrears period until and unless the arrears are paid for the relevant period.

Evidence of adequate health insurance

Some visas require you to provide evidence of adequate health insurance before we grant the visa.

We might ask you to provide a copy of a health insurance policy for you and any additional applicants applying for the visa with you. Check the requirements of the visa you are applying for.

Infosys hires 1200 locals as 457 visa cull hits

January 29, 2019 / Leave a comment

An already hot market for technology talent in Australia is set to intensify after Indian technology services and outsourcing behemoth Infosys committed to creating another 1200 positions within its local operations in the wake of the abolition of 457 skilled visa class.

The favoured tech body shop of big corporates and banks said on Tuesday the new roles will be created in just over a year through the creation of three new local “Innovation Hubs”, the location of which is yet to be formalized but is most likely to be in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

However the big unspoken in the announcement is that many technology suppliers are still reeling from the abolition of the hugely popular subclass 457 skilled visa that allowed corporates and their suppliers to sponsor skilled tech labour into Australia.

While a clear part of the policy intention was to increase domestic onshore hiring and clamp down labour arbitrageur rorts, the jury is still out as to whether there is enough skilled local labour to fill demand.

The 457 visa – which was partly architected by former Fujitsu Australia head Neville Roach AO in the 1980s – was controversially junked mid-2017 in favour of a more doctrinaire Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) provoking as strong backlash from the local tech industry.

Among the sharpest critics were Australian software exporters including Atlassian who were backed by international companies also operating here, including Google.

Google in January this year revealed it had been forced to change its own local hiring policy early this year in response to the 457 visa abolition, criticising the removal of business critical skills from longer term visas.

However foreign outsourcers, especially those competing on price, had long been suspected of manipulating the 457 scheme by paying the necessary PAYG withholding component to meet minimum salary requirements onshore, but then shifting the remainder of employee payments to offshore remittance out of the view of the Australian Taxation Office and Immigration compliance units.

Abuses of the 457 scheme in sectors outside the technology, like construction, mining and food services, also contributed to the crackdown.

|The coalition is putting the early squeeze on foreign workers”

January 22, 2018 / Leave a comment

The 457 visa for temporary workers won’t be officially abolished until March 1, but the number granted has already fallen by more than a third – heralding a squeeze on foreign workers by the coalition.

Australian National University researcher Henry Sherrell has foundthe number of primary 457 visas granted in the 2017 September quarter was down by 35.7 per cent on the same period of 2016.

And the dive was not because some jobs – most famously, “goat farmer” – have been ruled ineligible. In a paper published by the Parliamentary Library, the ANU Development Policy Centre research officer reports only a fifth of the decline in 457s came from the scrapped occupations.

Eight of the top 10 occupations for primary 457 visas had significant double-digit declines. Developer programmers were down by 42 per cent to 350 in the quarter, ICT business analysts plunged 49 per cent to 238, resident medical officers dropped 18 per cent to 436 and the top 457 job, cook, was off 29 per cent to 452.

Given the near-record employment growth last year, the sharp reduction in 457s appears to have nothing to do with demand for labour, but a response by employers and would-be employees to hiring and gaining permanent residency being made more difficult and expensive.

The size of the fall and the breadth of occupations to experience it during a period of very fast employment growth should raise some interesting questions about the nature of the Australian workforce and how 457s have been used.

From March 1, the 651 occupations eligible for 457 visas will be formally replaced by 435 occupations eligible for Temporary Skilled Shortage (TSS) visa, which comes in two flavours: a two-year visa that can be extended only once and offers no pathway to permanent residency; and a four-year visa that can lead to permanent residency. There are only 183 occupations eligible for the four-year visa.

The possibility of permanent residency seems to make an immediate difference to applications. Sherrell notes that while cook 457s plunged, visas granted to chefs rose slightly. Chefs are in the pot for four-year visas, cooks are left in the two-year pan.

“The increase in chefs could reflect genuine growth in employer demand for chefs,” Sherrell writes. “However, it may also reflect employers who previously nominated cooks now nominating chefs as this is a more advantageous occupation for migrants and employers given visa conditions. If the job being performed in the business has not changed, this might be called ‘occupational inflation’, as employers upgrade their occupations to take advantage of more beneficial immigration policy settings.”

Visa requirements tighten further from March. For the shorter TSS, applicants will need at least two year’s work experience – wiping out many of the foreign students and backpackers that have been transitioning. Employers will be subject to greater scrutiny, higher visa costs and a new training levy. There are stricter English language requirements and a lower maximum age for the four-year visas.

Sherrill notes a lack of other useful data on 457s, such as salary figures and the number of applications that are rejected, and warns that isolating the effects of specific policy change is difficult amidst multiple factors, but he suggests the eligibility changes could further reduce demand for TSS visas.

Before anyone gets too excited thinking fewer overseas workers will mean higher wages, Sherrell’s isn’t the only interesting paper to consider. Slate.com reports an American study that has relevance here on why workers aren’t getting decent wage rises despite jobs growth and falling unemployment.

The study suggests it’s not so much a matter of an excess of workers holding down wages, but a shortage of employers. The idea is that in various geographical areas and fields, hiring is concentrated among a relatively small number of businesses resulting in a monopsony problem – a lack of competition among employers.

“Monopsony is essentially monopoly’s quieter, less appreciated twin sibling,” Slate explains. “A monopolist can fix prices because it’s the only seller in the market. A monopsonist, on the other hand, can pay whatever it likes for labour or suppliers, because it’s the only company buying or hiring.”

Given the limited number of players in key Australian industries, it’s not impossible to think monopsony develops whereby it’s not in those players’ interests to compete too hard for workers, or to at least not compete on price.

Meanwhile, back at the 457s, Sherrell says there’s a lack of analysis of the changes but cites an August report by the Australian Population Research Institute’s Bob Birrell – a campaigner against present migration levels.

Birrell called the 457 changes “the first serious sign that either major political party is prepared to tackle the immigration issue”.

“Make no mistake about the significance of the rest,” he wrote. “When fully in place from March 2018, the flagship ENS (employer nomination scheme for permanent residency) program will fall to less than a third of its recent size of 48,250. The number of TSS visas will also fall sharply relative to the current number of 457 visas being granted.”

Birrell expects further reforms by the government to make their immigration policy change more obvious to the public.

The apparent contradiction here is that while fewer 457/TSS visas would mean a relatively small reduction in the number of people in the country, there’s been no sign of a change in the permanent visa quota of 190,000, plus humanitarian admissions. Family reunions – mainly spouses – get 60,000 places and skilled migrants and their families the rest.

Whether the 130,000 should come as “newbies” based on their qualifications or those given a trial run through temporary work is a matter of further debate. The Productivity Commission has argued that temporary workers here should not be given an advantage in the selection process, but the Lowy Institute’s Peter Mares makes a casefor the two-step temporary-to-permanent pathway having significant benefits for productivity because it facilitates better matching of skills to positions.

“Before the introduction of 457 visas, skilled migrants would often be granted a permanent visa before arrival in Australia,” Mares wrote. “Visas would be issued under the points system, which was the government’s attempt to match the annual skilled migration intake to its expectation of the number and types of professionals the economy would need in the year ahead. Migrants would often land in Australia and then search for a job to match their qualifications.

“Frequently, however, they might end up taking a position in which their skills were not well utilised. (We are all familiar with the scenario of engineers driving cabs, for example.) This might have been because government assumptions about the labour market were incorrect, or because those assumptions had been overtaken by a change in business conditions.”

p.s. despite the crackdown on goat farmers and kennel handlers, the list or eligible skilled occupations for foreigners remains somewhat curious. It includes “journalists and other writers”. Anecdotal evidence would point to no shortage. At least “federal politicians” doesn’t feature.

http://help.457assistance.com/contact-us/

“Skilled Visa E-news September 2017” (c) border.gov.au

October 10, 2017 / Leave a comment

Occupations update
When are the next changes to the lists of eligible skilled occupations?

Consistent with the Australian Government’s announcement, the lists of eligible skilled occupations will be reviewed every six months, with the next update expected in January 2018.

457 update
Reminder regarding evidence of LMT

As advised in the last newsletter, nomination applications lodged on or after 1 October 2017, are required to provide additional evidence under policy in order to satisfy the Labour Market Testing (LMT) requirement (where required) – that is:
a copy of relevant advertisement(s)*; and
if fees were paid, receipt for any fees paid.
The current Domestic Recruitment Table (DRT) will no longer be accepted as sufficient evidence under policy of having tested the Australian labour market – and hence, that there is no suitably qualified and experienced Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible temporary visa holder readily available to fill the nominated position.

Market salary rates
Agents are reminded to ensure that they are providing sufficient supporting documentation to demonstrate that market salary rate provisions are met and that the documentation required depends on whether there is an equivalent Australian worker performing the same work in the same location.

Processing times update

ENS and RSMS processing times have increased due to an increase in lodgement numbers since April 2017.
Processing times for complete subclass 457 applications are significantly shorter (up to 3 months) than processing times for incomplete applications (currently up to 10 months).

Adding newborn children
Agents are requested to remind their clients with on hand visa applications to advise the Department as soon as children are born and provide a birth certificate in order for the child to be added to the application on departmental systems (regulation 2.08).

Completing the 457 Subsequent Entrant (SE) online form

Some users seem to be confused by the question ‘Give details of the associated primary visa applicant/holder’ on page 2 of the subclass 457 subsequent entrant online form.
In answering this question, some users are entering the biodata details of the SE instead of those of the subclass 457 visa holder.
Where this occurs, the application is able to be submitted by the user, but it cannot be validly lodged. This is because the data in the SE applications does not match the information in departmental systems about the 457 visa holder, and prevents lodgement systems from being able to ‘link’ the applications.
Manual intervention by a departmental officer is required to correct the data error within the SE application form, this can only occur once authorisation to amend the application data has been provided by the authorised contact for the application.

457 Visa changes and Paint & Panel autobody repair shops in Australia

August 2, 2017 / Leave a comment

In our recent tour of a number of Australian autobody repair shops it became clear that the abolished 457 visa and the new legislation has already caused problems for business who have brought over workers from overseas. We have heard of one deportation at least, and some business owners are wondering how they will find the staff they need with the more rigorous entry criteria. Spray painters have been taken off the skilled migrant list all together and there are meetings taking place with politicians to try to have them reinstated.

On the other hand some industry folk think that importing tradespeople from overseas is unsustainable and that having this option made harder will focus people to ‘grow our own’ and for business owners to take on more apprentices and take time to train them.

Those who continue to bring in skilled migrants will have to pay through the nose. Employers will be slugged at least triple the bill to bring foreign workers into the country as the Federal Government eyes off more than $1 billion in new visa fees.

The federal government has outlined in the budget its plans for scrapping 457 visas for skilled migrants and replacing the scheme with short and medium-term streams.

Application fees for two year visas will increase by $90 to $1150, while four-year visa applications will cost $2400 apiece.

The price hikes are expected to bring in an extra $47.6 million over the budget forward estimates.

On top of this, companies will also be slugged an annual foreign worker levy.

Until now, employers have contributed one of two per cent of their payroll to training if they employed foreign workers.

But the requirements have proved near impossible to police, so the government is taking a different tack.

From March 2018, businesses that employ foreign workers on certain skilled visas will instead be required to shovel money into a “Skilling Australians” fund.

Companies turning over less than $10 million per year must make an upfront payment of $1200 (per visa, per year) for each employee on a temporary visa.

They must also make a one-off payment of $3000 for each staffer sponsored for a permanent skilled worker visas.

Businesses with turnovers above $10 million will be required to make up front payments of $1800 for each worker on temporary visas and $5000 one-off levies for those on permanent skilled visas.

The levy is expected to rake in $1.2 billion over the next four years, which will be funnelled into a new Commonwealth-State skills fund.

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