What’s New?

Recently, the Australian Government made changes to the requirements of local businesses looking to sponsor non-Australians into skilled positions. One such change was further clarification in terms of the kinds of advertising it expects businesses to have conducted seeking to fill the position with Australian workers prior to submitting a Sponsorship application for a foreign worker. This is otherwise known as the Labour Market Testing requirement.
 
Where Should you Advertise?

Accordingly, Australian businesses will now need to demonstrate the following in relation to the position they wish to fill with a non-Australian worker:

What Should the Advertisements Say?

In order to meet DHA requirements, the advertisements should provide the following information:

• be in English
• the title, or a description, of the position;
• the name of the approved sponsor or the name of the recruitment agency being used by the sponsor; and
• the annual earnings for the position (unless the annual earnings will be greater than the Fair Work High Income Threshold, currently AUD 142,000);

 
How Long Should it Run For?

Under DHA policy, for online advertisements, it is expected that the advertisement would have remained live for at least 28 consecutive days and within 4 months of lodgment. Similarly, for print or radio advertisements, it is expected that applications or expressions of interests were accepted for at least 28 consecutive days. 

Do You Have an Example?
 
We sure do! Please see below for a template/example that you can use in your advertisements.

I Have Already Advertised. Can I Use It?

As long as your advertisements were similar to the example provided above, ran for at least 28 days and were placed within 4 months of lodging the Nomination, this may be acceptable. However, given the ever continuing changes surrounding this are of immigration law, we would encourage you to seek professional advice prior to submitting your application.

Is Anyone Exempt?

Due to current International Trade Obligations, exemptions do exist in certain cases. This blog will not necessarily summarize all of the exemptions under the relevant Legislative Instrument, however for the benefit of most of our readers, we can confirm that nominees who are Citizens/Nationals of China, Japan or Thailand as well as Citizens/Nationals/Permanent Residents of Chile, Korea, New Zealand and Singapore will be exempt under current rules (i.e. if you are one of the above, your employer will not be required to meet Labour Market Testing requirements in order to sponsor you).

Looking for Help?
 
If you have any questions relating to the LMT requirement and how to ensure your businesses satisfies these new requirements, please feel free to leave an online enquiry here.

​Salvo Migration

In more good news for Australian businesses wanting to sponsor foreign workers (sarcasm - see here), on the 10 May 2018 the Australian Senate passed the Migration Amendment (Skilling Australians Fund) Bill 2017 and Migration (Skilling Australians Fund) Changes Bill. Effectively, the combined impact of this Legislation is replacement of the previous Training Benchmarks with the imminent introduction of a Training Levy. In short,  the Training Levy is an additional fee payable by Australian employers at the time that they nominate non-Australians for Sponsored Visas. The funds received will be put towards the financing and operation of the Skilling Australia Fund, managed by the Department of Education and Training. 

Once finalized and in force, it is anticipates the Training Levy fee payable by Australian employers will be as follows:

For businesses with turnover of less than $10 million per year

• TSS Visa - $1200 for each year the nominee will be working for the business, for example:
  
  Carpentry Brisbane Ltd wish to sponsor Kerry McGill, a qualified and experienced carpenter, for 4 years on a Subclass 482 TSS visa. Carpentry Brisbane Pty Ltd will be required to pay $4800  towards the Training Fund at the time that they nominate Kerry, being $1200 x 4 years.
  
  Please note, the requirement for the business to make a payment towards the Training Fund repeats each time a new worker is nominated on the TSS visa. The up front payments are required per worker, per year. 
  
  
• ENS/RSMS - a one-off payment of $3000 each worker nominated for the ENS or RSMS.

For businesses with turnover of $10 million or more per year

• TSS Visa - $1800 for each year the nominee will be working for the business, for example:
  
  Carpentry Brisbane Ltd wish to sponsor Kerry McGill, a qualified and experienced carpenter, for 4 years on a Subclass 482 TSS visa. Carpentry Brisbane Pty Ltd will be required to pay $4800  towards the Training Fund at the time that they nominate Kerry, being $1200 x 4 years.
  
  Please note, the requirement for the business to make a payment towards the Training Fund repeats each time a new worker is nominated on the TSS visa. The up front payments are required per worker, per year. 
  
  
• ENS/RSMS -  a one-off payment of $5000 each worker nominated for the ENS or RSMS.

If you have any questions relating to the Training Levy or Sponsored visa requirements in general, please feel free to get in contact with us here, or join our private Facebook Group here.

We hope this helps.

Salvo Migration