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New penalties take effect on 1 June 2013 Details of the requirements under the amended Migration Act and Regulations are now available and can be viewed HERE. Businesses may take a risk-based approach to deciding whether to check and how to check worker status.
A business is expected to take reasonable steps, at reasonable times to confirm that a non-citizen is allowed to work. Where a business has a workforce which comprises seasonal labour and has a high and frequent turnover of workers, a practical approach may be to have a formal contract arrangement with a labour supplier obligating them to undertake checks and to only supply workers who are allowed to work in Australia. Businesses are still responsible for hiring legal workers even if they use a contractor or labour hire-company. However they can contract out this obligation so that contractors and labour hire companies are responsible for checking that people are allowed to work. Businesses can do this by adding a clause to their contract or by specifying in writing that the supply of labour includes only non-citizens with the required permission to work. Examples of contractor clauses can be viewed at: http://www.immi.gov.au/managing-australias-borders/compliance/legalworkers/contractclauses.htm Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO)is a secure and free government web-based service and is the preferred method of checking if non-citizens are allowed to work. http://www.immi.gov.au/e_visa/vevo.htm For more information contact :
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