The government's latest changes to the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) rules further expose the scheme as a cynical method to drive down low-skilled wages in sectors like hospitality, agriculture and retail by using low-paid migrant workers who are now even less protected from exploitation by unscrupulous employers.
On December 17th, immigration Minister Erica Stanford announced further changes to the AEWV rules, proclaiming that these would help to "reduce migrant exploitation" and "ensuring New Zealanders are prioritised for job opportunities". The reality of these changes is very different.
A key change that has been announced is that "Wage thresholds for all AEWV roles will be removed". This finally puts the nail in the coffin regarding whether or not this visa is about bringing in skilled workers to fill crucial labour shortages, as claimed by Stanford. Clearly, as employers will now be able to pay as little as they like as long as they can justify this as a 'market' rate, the AEWV is actually much more about bringing in large numbers of low-skilled migrant workers - over 120,000 since 2022, to drive down wages and conditions in entry-level jobs. That had already been exposed by the myriad of exemptions to the median wage threshold brought in over the last two years, but removing the threshold entirely paves the way for huge numbers of vulnerable minimum wage migrants being exposed to exploitative employers with even fewer effective checks and balances than before.
While still professing to be concerned about possible exploitation, Stanford's changes have further reduced the already weak safeguards in place - replacing a requirement for employers to engage with Work and Income with a 'declaration' in the interests of "efficiency gains" for "low-risk employers". No mention was made of which employers will be deemed 'low-risk' or how that distinction will be made, despite the damning independent review from Bestwick identifying serious "risk of exploitation by unscrupulous agents or employers."
To rub salt into the wound, the announced changes have also made it far more difficult for migrant workers to be reunited with dependent children while they work here, raising the income threshold from $43,322 to $55,844 at the same time as reducing the actual wage rates that AEWV holders will be able to earn - a heartless Christmas surprise for workers like front of house Tina* in Queenstown (name changed for privacy reasons) who hasn't seen her kids back in the Philippines for 2 years while working with 7-day availability, nights and weekends in a fast food joint in NZ for close to the minimum wage.
There are however some changes that will be greeted positively by migrant workers - a flip-flop by the coalition government on two extremely negative rule changes announced in 2024 - unrealistic experience checks for low skilled jobs and cutting the total length of stay for category 4 & 5 AEWV holders to 2 years. Now the experience requirements for these levels have been reduced, and the total length of stay extended to three years which is a welcome relief to the tens of thousands of migrant workers facing an imminent end to their visas in 2025. However, as Unite union assistant national secretary Gerard Hehir points out,
"Not sure it makes sense to make it easier to bring in less skilled workers when unemployment is on the increase, unless you want to depress wages overall of course - in which case it makes perfect sense"
Employers groups such as Retail NZ, the Employers and Manufacturers Association, Hospitality NZ and Business NZ have predictably welcomed the changes by a coalition government hell-bent on appeasing business interests at the expense of workers, and should be seen in the context of the range of other attacks on workers such as the real wage cuts happening for the second year running due to below-inflation adjustment to the minimum wage.
Migrant workers should join their unions for advice and protection from an aggressively anti-worker government. Our best chance to challenge these policies and protect both migrants workers and Kiwi workers in low-paid industries is through collective action. Together we are strong! Hospitality workers can join Unite here.
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