Radhakrishnan PriyancaWORKER PROTECTION (MIGRANT AND OTHER EMPLOYEES) BILLSecond ReadingHon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Associate Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety): I present a legislative statement on the Worker Protection (Migrant and Other Employees) Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: I move That the Worker Protection (Migrant and Other Employees) Bill be now read a second time.Protecting our migrant workers from exploitation is a priority for our Government. The contribution of migrant workers to the New Zealand economy must be valued and equally their vulnerabilities must be addressed. The Worker Protection (Migrant and Other Employees) Bill strengthens our immigration and employment system by introducing a fit for purpose offence and penalty regime to protect migrant workers in New Zealand. As immigration continues to ramp up and we have more migrant workers on the ground helping our economy across different sectors it is important that we put in place the right measures to protect them from exploitation.Last term this Government announced a coordinated end-to-end package of legislative policy and operational changes to reduce migrant exploitation in New Zealand. We've already made great progress with initiatives like new reporting tools the migrant exploitation protection visa and an education and information pilot being rolled out so far. This bill builds on this work to further protect migrant workers from exploitative employers in New Zealand.The Education and Workforce Committee finished its consideration of the bill and reported back to the House on 20 March. The committee voted by a majority for the bill to be passed and it recommended minor changes that have been incorporated to improve the clarity of drafting. They do not substantially change the bill. I thank the Education and Workforce Committee for their work and robust select committee process while considering this bill. I would also like to thank the individuals and organisations who made submissions on the bill for their time their expertise and their engagement. Of the 44 written submissions 35 supported the bill either as it was reported to the Education and Workforce Committee or in principle. Community Law's submission to the select committee noted the importance of our suite of initiatives including this bill to prevent expose and investigate exploitation. They regularly see clients who don't even get their minimum employment entitlements or who have their immigration status used against them. I was heartened to see the need for further work in this area be acknowledged so broadly across the submissions.There are three key parts to this bill that I want to touch on. Firstly we need to stop exploitation from occurring at any level. That's especially important in stopping the most serious examples of exploitation we've seen in this country. This bill creates a penalty regime that will allow immigration officers to address low-level non-compliant employer behaviour that is linked to migrant exploitation. Currently immigration officers do not have any mechanisms outside of criminal prosecution to address low-level non-compliant employer behaviour. Criminal prosecution is a time-consuming expensive and inefficient response for such low-level offences. Introducing infringement offences will ensure that even lower-level offending like refusing to provide employment documentation can be dealt with before it becomes more serious. Immigration New Zealand has estimated that it would issue between 500 and 1000 infringement notices to non-compliant employers per year under this new infringement regime.Secondly we need to ensure that our immigration officers have the tools to verify that employers are complying with their obligations. This is about levelling the playing field so that employers who are trying hard to meet their commitments to migrant workers don't get undercut or disadvantaged. Once the bill commences designated and authorised immigration officers will be able to request employment documents from employers about migrant workers whose visas they have supported. Only employers who have supported a visa application can be required to supply documents and the documentation can only be about those who have been supported on that visa not other employees that an employer may have. The documents that can be requested are clearly stated in the provision—specifically documents that an employer is already legally required to hold or can otherwise be expected to hold. It only applies to pre-existing documents and cannot be used to obtain a new statement or compel an employer to answer questions. These records would allow immigration officers to assess for example whether a migrant worker is being paid the salary stated in the employer-supported visa application. I want to be very clear: the document production power does not provide a power of entry or a power of search; the robust legislative and operational safeguards are there to prevent this information from being used to target overstayers or other vulnerable migrants. Although immigration officers may exercise the power without reasonable belief of non-compliance this is justified given that it's a relatively un-intrusive power intended to enable just the auditing of employer compliance. This is a narrow scope with very carefully designed limitations. Immigration officers must also be designated and authorised to use the power and be issued a warrant of designation by the chief executive of the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE). In their New Zealand Bill of Rights Act vet of the bill the Ministry of Justice concluded that the document production power was justified and did not contravene the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. The document production power is an important tool for protecting migrant workers because it means that there can be proactive checks to verify that employers are complying with their legal obligations. It supports the overall objective of the bill to deter employers from exploiting migrant workers. We know that migrant worker exploitation is under-reported; we must be proactive.Thirdly we need to hold exploitative employers to account. The bill will allow MBIE to publish certain information about employers who have committed immigration offences. Currently employers who breach their obligations under the Employment Relations Act are published on a stand-down list. This bill will allow immigration offending to also be made public and ensure that the names of employers who breached their obligations under the Immigration Act are made available. The stand-down list is a crucial tool to allow both prospective and current migrant workers to know if an employer is compliant with New Zealand's employment law. This bill will require employers to respond to requests for information from the labour inspectorate or immigration officers within 10 working days. Currently there are no specified time frames. We need this to create that level playing field. Immigration officers will however have discretion not to impose a fee where there are genuine reasons for delay.The Worker Protection (Migrant and Other Employees) Bill will also amend the Companies Act to allow the courts to disqualify people who are convicted of migrant exploitation or of people trafficking from managing or directing a company. This change will prevent people who have used company structures to exploit others from doing so again in the future. It is only appropriate that we don't allow people who commit these offences to continue managing companies and employing potentially vulnerable people.No one stand-alone action will address migrant worker exploitation entirely. But with a suite of measures including education and awareness raising the provision of reporting tools for migrant workers and these new powers and offences we can prevent exploitation from occurring. We can protect those migrant workers who are subjected to exploitation by providing the tools enabling them to leave the exploitative situation and we can take enforcement action to deal with employers who continue to choose not to comply with their legal obligations. I commend the bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The question is that the motion be agreed to.