New Government makes Hospitality Staff a Priority
The Hotel and Accommodation Industry Labour Agreement
The Department of Home Affairs has released a new Labour Agreement pathway, specifically designed to benefit the Hotel and Accommodation sectors. This Labour Agreement seeks to alleviate labour shortages within the hospitality industry generally.
This new Labour Agreement has been developed to seek to encourage hospitality staff working within the Hotel and Accommodation sectors to travel to Australia and remain in Australia, by offering them a pathway to permanent residency after working with their employer for a period of three years on their nominated occupation, where (generally speaking) this was previously unavailable.
A Labour Agreement is a formal agreement between the Australian Government and an eligible business. A Labour Agreement can allow an eligible business to sponsor certain applicants in occupations that do not qualify for permanent residency under the ordinary standard business sponsorship visa scheme (i.e. the ordinary subclass 482 and subclass 494 visa schemes).
The eligible business can request access to certain additional occupations through the Labour Agreement and request a pathway to permanent residency under those occupations.
What arrangements are available for Hotel and Accommodation businesses under the new Labour Agreement?
The new possibilities under this introduced Labour Agreement are as follows:
A permanent residence pathway under the Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) visa (subclass 186), available across Australia, for overseas workers who have held a Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa (subclass 482) for at least three years, nominated under the Labour Agreement, relating to one of the following seven ANZSCO occupations:
Café or Restaurant Manager (141111)
Hotel or Motel Manager (141311)
Hotel Service Manager (431411)
Accommodation and Hospitality Manager nec. (141999)
Cook (351411)
Chef (351311)
Pastry Cook (351112)
A permanent residence pathway, via the Permanent Residence (Skilled Regional) visa (subclass 191), for regionally based workers who have held a Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (SESR) (Provisional) visa (subclass 494) for at least three years, nominated under the Labour Agreement, relating to one of the following seven ANZSCO occupations:
Café or Restaurant Manager (141111)
Hotel or Motel Manager (141311)
Hotel Service Manager (431411)
Accommodation and Hospitality Manager nec. (141999)
Cook (351411)
Chef (351311)
Pastry Cook (351112)
An age concession, for ENS and SESR visa applicants, which allows workers to be under 55 years old when they apply for an ENS/SESR visas for the following four occupations:
Café and Restaurant Manager (141111)
Hotel or Motel Manager (141311)
Accommodation and Hospitality Manager nec. (141999)
Hotel Service Manager (431411)
Standard skilled visa requirements will apply for:
Labour market testing
English language requirements
Work experience
Salary
What are the benefits of the new arrangements?
Of the occupations listed above, only the occupation of Chef currently has a pathway to permanent residency through the ordinary 482 pathway. All other occupations (except Hotel Service Manager) are currently on the short term skilled occupation list, and so there the option of a 2 year 4782 visa, but no pathway to permanent residency.
Hotel Service Manager is not even on the 482 skilled occupation list, and so is not available for sponsorship through the ordinary 482 pathway at all.
All of the above occupations now have a pathway to PR through the Labour Agreement, assuming the requirements can be satisfied.
There is also the age concession for the four specified occupations, allowing persons who are over the ordinary age limit of 45 (but under 55) to access permanent residency as well if they are nominated in a specified occupation under the Labour Agreement.
How do I apply to access these arrangements?
If you consider that you operate a business within the above sector and would like to consider the possibility of nominating one or more candidates for permanent residency through the above occupations, please contact us and we will be pleased to advise on the process of securing a Labour Agreement under this new pathway.
Note that these new arrangements will be reviewed after 12 months and so we encourage interested businesses to apply as soon as possible.
Please feel free to reach out to one of the below for further advice and assistance:
