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When you hold a Working Holiday Visa (Subclass 417) or a Work and Holiday Visa (Subclass 462), you know you need to do “specified work” for a certain period of time in order to secure your second and third 417 or 462 visa.
If you’d like to find out more about “specified work”, here is some fun reading….
- The regulations listing Specified Work activities and applicable postcodes for a Subclass 462 Work and Holiday Visa holder are here.
- The regulations listing Specified Work activities and applicable postcodes for a Subclass 417 Working Holiday Visa holder are here.
For a Subclass 417 Working Holiday Visa holder, “specified work” includes amongst other things mining, construction, farmwork, bushfire recovery work and health care, in specified postcodes.
For Subclass 462 Visa Work & HolidayVisa holder specified work includes, tourism and hospitality, agriculture, construction and healthcare also in specified postcodes.
Something new you must take into consideration when doing “specified work” – don’t work for an “excluded” employer
There’s an additional thing to keep in mind when you undertake the “specified work” as a Subclass 417 or 462 visa holder.
New regulations state that any work that you do for an “excluded employer” cannot be counted towards a second or third Working Holiday/Work & Holiday visa!
What is an “Excluded Employer”?
The new regulations allow the Minister for Immigration to specify a person, partnership or unincorporated association (the employer) as being “excluded” if they are satisfied that,
(a) the employer poses a risk to your safety or welfare when you’re performing work in their employment, or under their supervision; or
(b) the work in the employment, or under the supervision, of the employer poses a risk to your safety or welfare.
There are thus two situations that the minister is concerned about:
- That the employer poses a risk to their employees, or,
- Others working in the business pose a risk to the employees.
The new regulations are silent about how the Minister for Immigration judges an employer to be “excluded”, or what sort of negative employer behaviour attracts the Minister’s attention.
We can only imagine that exploitation of foreign workers would be up there as a reason.
How do I know if an employer is “Excluded”?
Names and details of excluded employers will be published online in a document called a “Legislative Instrument” (which is really what we directed you to above to find out more about “specified work”).
Unfortunately though, unless you’re working as a lawyer/migration agent, these publications are quite hard to find or search, and at the moment it is unclear whether the Minister will also publish a list of excluded employers on the Department of Home Affairs or the FairWork website, or release a media statement when they make such a determination.
Another worry
Worryingly, the new regulations are silent about the status of your specified work and whether it can be taken into account if your employer becomes “excluded” after you have commenced working for them.
On a strict reading of the regulations though, it appears that any work undertaken for an excluded employer cannot be counted even if the employer’s status is amended midway through your employment.
If this interpretation is correct, and your visa is refused because of this view of the new regulations, we would recommend lodging an appeal of the decision at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Currently, there are no listed “excluded” employers.
This however, could change at any time. We will update this blog post and publish a newsletter if the Minister excludes any employers in the future. Please subscribe to our newsletter below to keep informed about this issue and other Australian Immigration News.
