‘When will our businesses catch a break?’

• Published date: 18 April 2024
• Publication title: Mountain Scene

That effectively sums up the mood of Queenstown employers when considering changes made to the controversial accredited employer work visa (AEWV) scheme — announced and introduced on April 7 — which look likely to again jeopardise businesses’ ability to operate at full capacity this winter

Changes to ANZSCO Level 4 and 5 roles — for example, kitchen hands, housekeepers, bar and wait staff — include requiring employers to engage with Work and Income before approval to bring migrant workers in will be granted, and reducing the maximum continuous stay for most of those roles from five to three years.

Those workers will also need to prove they have three years’ relevant experience for their visas to be approved.

One local HR specialist questions where local businesses will find migrant workers who already have that level of experience as a kitchen hand, noting ‘‘you’re asking for unskilled workers to be skilled’’.

Ironically, even those already in the country on the AEWV for the past couple of years may not be eligible for a new visa under the changes.

At present, the AEWV process has taken at least three months, but there are fears it may now stretch to five months, meaning those looking to recruit for this winter may well have already missed out.

‘‘I think the difficult thing is, we’d finally gotten to a point where we were just swimming,’’ the HR specialist, who doesn’t want to be named, says.

‘‘I think we all know, Queenstown is as busy as it ever has been, it’s just the thought of having to go back to where we were, where restaurants can’t open fully ... are we going to have to start capping occupancy again, because we just don’t have the staff?’’

Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce boss Sharon Fifield labels the changes ‘‘complete rubbish’’, ‘‘ridiculous’’ and questions if those who came up with the changes have ever run a business.

‘‘Businesses here, they just get it from all angles.

‘‘When can they catch a break and just get on with doing business?

‘‘It’s really frustrating.’’

Fifield says there’s been ‘‘lots of noise’’ from the Chamber’s members, concerned at the impacts on individual businesses, and the town’s economy.

She says in some large businesses in Queenstown, over half the workforce is on an AEWV, people who now face an uncertain future.

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