Are you an employer seeking accreditation? An employee hoping for a smooth work visa application? This task may be tedious, but it is essential!

Are you an employer? Do you have staff?

Immigration and compliant employment practices go hand in hand.

Immigration New Zealand places great importance on protecting migrants from mistreatment by employers who break the rules. As an employer, you must therefore ensure you understand and keep up with the latest relevant immigration policies and employment requirements.

For example, employers must keep files and records for every employee. These include:

• Their name, postal address, age if under 20, and employment start date;
• A copy of their signed employment agreement;
• The type of work they are employed to do;
• The hours worked each day within each pay period, such as a fortnight, and the hourly pay rate. If both parties agree that pay is based on regular hours, such as weekly hours, a statement recording those hours and the pay is sufficient. This information should be included in:

Wage and time records;

The employment agreement;

Rosters;

Any other documents or records normally used during employment. 

For salaried employees, usual working hours include any additional hours consistent with their employment agreement.

However, if additional overtime is required, the employer must record those hours and keep sufficiently detailed records to show that the employee has received their minimum entitlements. The records should include: 

• The wages paid in each pay period and how they were calculated.
• The dates on which the employee becomes entitled to annual holidays and sick leave, and their current annual holiday and sick leave entitlements.
• The dates of leave taken, including annual holidays, sick leave and bereavement leave, and the amount paid during that leave.
• Any annual holidays cashed up, including the dates and amounts paid in each entitlement year.
• The dates and exact hours of overtime worked on public holidays, and the amounts paid; any dates transferred because a public holiday, or part of it, fell on a weekend, or calculated as a 24-hour period; and the dates of any alternative holidays the employee consequently becomes entitled to take on working days.
• The dates and amounts paid for any public holidays or alternative holidays on which the employee did not have to work but was entitled to holiday pay.
• Any payments made for alternative holidays the employee chose to cash up.
• The cash value of any board or lodging provided by the employer.
• The date employment ended and the holiday pay the employee received on termination.
• A copy of the employee's tax code declaration.
• Details of any training leave taken during employment.

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How does this affect immigration?

Mandatory employer accreditation is due to take effect in 2021.

This means that only accredited employers will be able to support work visa applications.

As an employer, have you obtained this accreditation? Prepare in advance rather than waiting for a mistake to be discovered. 

Without accurate records, your application for employer accreditation may be declined.

What happens if you do not keep accurate records? 

If an employer fails to keep complete and accurate wage, time, holiday and leave records as required by the Employment Relations Act 2000 and the Holidays Act 2003:

1. The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) or a Labour Inspector may impose a penalty. For an individual, this can be up to NZ$50,000; for a company, up to NZ$100,000 or three times the company's financial gain, whichever is greater.
2. A Labour Inspector may also issue an infringement notice for failing to keep records as required.
3. Employers who receive an infringement notice will lose their eligibility to sponsor work visas.

For many businesses, a fine of $30,000–50,000, combined with being unable to sponsor employees' work visa applications, could force them to close. Preparing early can therefore save considerable money and effort later. 

Summary

Keeping thorough, well-maintained records is a cornerstone of sound business management. If you fail to keep pace, you will fall behind. In the unpredictable post-COVID-19 world, make sure your business understands and keeps up with employment and immigration policy requirements promptly and accurately. 

About the author

Sonny Lam

With more than a decade of litigation experience and a background as an Immigration New Zealand immigration officer, he now practises as an immigration lawyer at Forest Harrison Lawyers. After leaving Immigration New Zealand in 2015, he began specialising in immigration, bringing a distinctive perspective on technical immigration matters and the effective preparation of applications, and offering sound professional advice from the perspectives of both applicants and the immigration officers assessing their cases.