Vape shops should not be on the accredited employers list, how was this allowed to happen?
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@weekendspy
> Vape shops should not be on the accredited employers list
Accredited for what?
@strypey skilled migrant workers. These jobs can easily be done by our own citizens and residents. Absolutely no reason they need to get retail staff from overseas for a vape shop.
@weekendspy Oh right. If vape shop clerks are "skilled workers", so are supermarket checkout workers. I agree, that's an absurd classification.
Who decides which industries get to be accredited employers for sponsoring immigrant visas?
@strypey it's likely MBIE. There's genuine reason to keep retail in the list but I think exclusions should be clear, so that migrant workers who get employed by vape shops aren't given a path to residency, it's not a skill shortage and those roles should be filled by kiwis as much as possible. I get that in the regions it can be hard to find staff in general, but it just doesn't seem right that visas are granted for those kinds of businesses.
@weekendspy
> There's genuine reason to keep retail in the list
What are they? Because I can't think of a retail job that I wouldn't say is ...
> not a skill shortage and those roles should be filled by kiwis as much as possible
What do you see as exceptions and why?
> I get that in the regions it can be hard to find staff in general, but it just doesn't seem right that visas are granted
I'm open to the idea that visas could come with a wider range of jobs in the regions than in the cities.
@strypey I suppose it would be very specialist high level management for some industries or genuine rare technical skills, that just couldn't be filled by a recent graduate. The one thing I hate more than the idea of commonly-skilled jobs going to foreigners instead of kiwis, is giving high paid specialist or management roles to absolute incompetent charlatans through nepotism. So that is where potentially visas need to be considered on a case-by-case basis, but going back to my point specifically about businesses selling vape products, I don't believe a role exists in that organisational pyramid that can't be filled by a local. You could perhaps argue perhaps for importing a very talented manager to sort out problems in the logistics side, but it's quite a weak argument when we could instead invest in free courses that allows current residents to upskill and meet those needs before even starting operations for such a business. It just doesn't seem good practice to even start a vape shop without knowing you can staff it adequately using local labour.
I hear your concern about ...
@weekendspy
> commonly-skilled jobs going to foreigners instead of kiwis
... but it does presume that kiwis want to live in the places those jobs need to be done. The majority of the population now live in the 5 biggest cities, and although people do move out to the regions, it's usually to retire or run hobby businesses, not to take up existing local jobs there.
So as I say, I'm open to the idea of visas for a wider range of jobs in the regions than the city.
