Blog Image
Profile Image Verifile
February 8 2018

Australian Work rights checks: is your business complying with immigration obligations?

Even if they do not sponsor non-citizen workers, Australian businesses have obligations under the Migration Act 1958 that includes penalties for any person who allows a non-citizen to work, or who refers a non-citizen to work in circumstances where that non-citizen does not have appropriate work rights.

The penalties begin with an administrative warning and include financial as well as criminal penalties. Every employer in Australia must take reasonable steps to ensure that every person working for them has appropriate work rights.

It also means recruitment and labour hire companies must ensure that any person they put forward to work has appropriate work rights and understands all limitations to those work rights.