The Rules and Regulations Relating to Checking Your Staff Rights to Work 

It’s a mandatory legal requirement for all employers to validate their workforce’s rights to work and ensure that staff are only employed against these conditions.

In most cases, candidates will be granted the right to work, however, there is a range of visa restrictions, sponsorship types, and general rights to work that need to be validated, tracked, and monitored as part of legislated employment compliance.

Conditions may include only working certain hours per week, length of contract, only being able to work for a certain employer and even location restrictions.

The penalties enforced by the government for employing staff incorrectly, either deliberately or inadvertently are significant enough to ensure you implement a simple, effective system to manage work visa administration. Additionally, as this step should be completed during the initial hiring stages (to identify any restrictions or information that may impact their employment), you need to make sure the task is easy for the candidate to complete, whilst reducing the effort for your hiring team.

As noted by the Department of Home Affairs:

A person can legally work in Australia if:

• they are an Australian citizen or permanent resident or a New Zealand citizen, or
• they hold a valid visa with permission to work

Foreign nationals who do not have a valid visa are not allowed to work in Australia. This might include a person whose visa has expired or has been cancelled.

As a mandated legal requirement, there are steps you need to take to ensure you are meeting your obligations, and this includes validating their work right via a database check, and collecting the identity document that confirms a work right.

Employers cannot just accept a Tax File Number, Drivers Licence, or Medicare Card as proof of evidence of a work right, nor is accepting a copy of a foreign passport to confirm a work right.

If your candidate presents an Australian Passport, Citizenship Document or Birth Certificate, you can confirm their citizenship by using a Document Verification Service (DVS) and storing the associated result. A DVS is a government appointed organisation with access to national databases, to validate the existence of the document. WorkPro is one such accredited agency that can assist you in gaining this confirmation.

For those who provide a foreign passport or Immicard, you will need to check their right to work via the Visa Entitlement Verification (VEVO) database, store the outcome, implement a re-checking process, and employ the person only according to the conditions stated on the report.