Employers in many industries are faced with a daunting workplace when you consider skilled labour shortages, according to some reports.
A skilled labour shortage is one of the indicators of a booming economy and this has prompted many employers to examine the processes and cost of recruiting expatriate employees for particular work assignments.
Those employers who have previously recruited expatriates have one thing in common - they have invested substantial time and resources in finding the right employee.
But for those unwary employers the cost of employing an expatriate can blow out significantly over and above the total remuneration package and direct visa costs.
When an employer is approved by the Immigration Department to sponsor expatriates there is a hidden sting of which employers should be aware.
In exchange for the Department’s sponsorship approval, the employer simultaneously makes a series of enforceable promises to the Department to be responsible for what are known as ‘sponsor’s undertakings’.
Examples of these undertakings include providing the cost of return travel for the sponsored person (and his or her accompanying family) to their (his or her) home country and to pay all medical and hospital expenses for the sponsored person (and his or her accompanying family) other than those met by health insurance arrangements.
Compliance with these undertakings is regularly monitored and enforced by the Department.
The medical and hospital expenses undertaking was recently amended to provide that the new sponsoring employers will now only be responsible for all medical and hospital expenses administered in a public hospital. Health costs covered by reciprocal health care arrangements were also added as an acceptable exception to the rule.
Obviously, for the employer wishing to limit their liability for extra costs, appropriate insurance cover becomes essential.
That takes care of the employer’s relationship with the Department but what about the employer’s relationship with the expatriate?
Some business owners might be tempted to use a boilerplate or precedent employment contract which has done the job so well for so long.
However, the interplay between an expatriate needing a work visa and the sponsor’s undertakings has created a situation where a boilerplate employment contract is far from suitable.
Employer sponsors take note
Sponsor’s undertakings need to be addressed in the employment contract specifically in order to have clarity between the employer and the expatriate in the event that the relationship comes to an end.