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Visa changes offer security to migrant workers for New Zealand quake rebuild

Xinhua, May 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

The New Zealand government is to loosen visa requirements on immigrant workers helping to rebuild the earthquake-battered Canterbury region, Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse said Tuesday.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment had estimated that an additional 5,000 construction workers would be needed between December 2014 and the peak of the rebuild in December 2016, Woodhouse said in a statement.

The changes would make it easier for employers to recruit and retain immigrant workers.

"The government has agreed three immigration policy changes to streamline visa processes and increase labor market flexibility in Canterbury, while reducing the incidence of exploitation of migrant workers," said Woodhouse.

The changes would extend the maximum duration of essential skills visas for lower-skilled occupations from one year to three years for applications received between July 2015 and December 2016.

They would also allow holders of essential skills visas issued from July 1 working in Canterbury to change employers within the same occupation without having to apply for a variation of conditions on their visa.

The government would also introduce an accreditation scheme for labor hire companies that recruited and employed migrant workers on essential skills visas for work in the construction sector in Canterbury.

"Employers who want to retain good migrant workers for lower- skilled jobs will no longer have to go through the uncertainty of applying annually to renew their visa and migrant workers will have the flexibility to move between jobs more easily," he said.

The Amalgamated Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union ( EPMU), which represents workers in the Canterbury rebuild, generally approved of the changes.

"This gives migrant workers who are coming to a new country and participating in a hugely important rebuild project to have more job security, training, and protection from exploitation," EPMU construction organizer Ron Angel said in a statement.

The changes would help migrant workers, who were currently vulnerable to mistreatment from "cowboy operators" looking to make a quick buck off the backs of construction workers, he said. Endi