Hotel Council Aotearoa Welcomes Announcement That Qualification Checking For Immigrant Chefs Will Be Removed

Hotel Council Aotearoa (HCA) welcomes removal of the qualification requirement for chefs to be hired through an Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV). Such candidates will no longer need to satisfy immigration officials that their overseas qualifications and experience are equivalent to New Zealand’s Certificate of Cookery (Level 4).

“Removing this hurdle of qualifications checking is a common-sense outcome when New Zealand’s hotels and motels are desperate to rebuild their workforces after COVID,” said James Doolan, HCA’s Strategic Director. “We’re grateful that the Minister heard and acted on repeated submissions from tourism and hospitality industry groups about this.”

Government has also announced that tourism and hospitality businesses will be able to continue hiring migrants on a lower wage threshold than median wage for an extra year, until April 2024. The amended temporary threshold for tourism and hospitality businesses will, from April 2023, rise to 95 per cent of median wage, or $28.18 (based on the new median wage of $29.66 per hour).

“We welcome Government’s decision to show flexibility with tourism and hospitality businesses. However, this new temporary AEWV threshold is still an increase of 12.7 per cent above the existing $25.00 per hour threshold for tourism and hospitality, and 32.9 per cent higher than today’s minimum wage. Those are large increases for a sector that’s already struggling to deal with cost increases across almost all parts of the business.”

HCA and other tourism industry groups had sought an extension of the $25.00 temporary AEWV threshold until April 2024, or when international tourist arrivals returned to pre-COVID levels.

“Tourism often happens in isolated locations that have insufficient permanent residents to fill all entry-level roles,” said Doolan. “If New Zealand wants to attract international tourists to destinations such as Queenstown, the West Coast, Rotorua or the Bay of Islands, then we need imported labour to those destinations because demand is highly seasonal. We know that insufficient Kiwis are prepared to move to take up entry-level roles in tourism and hospitality, so why not work with the tourism and hospitality industry on a permanent solution? HCA is not convinced that a blunt median wage threshold for almost all immigrant labour is the best policy for New Zealand in the long term.”

“We do understand how Government aspires to a more sustainable tourism sector workforce,” said Doolan. “We hope this decision on chef qualifications signals a willingness from Government to work with the Tourism industry on systemic regional and seasonal workforce shortages, while still supporting the best possible recovery after COVID lockdowns and border closures.”

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