Useful workforce planning insights
I've seen plenty of articles and posts which provide some facts and information about the steps taken by multiple governments worldwide restricting movement of people from nominated locations.
This information is often referred to as "travel bans" - the most significant travel ban was announced by President Trump, banning all travel from Europe (excluding the United Kingdom) to the United States of America for 30 days from 12 March 2020.
There are immigration rules which attach to these travel bans. However, as helpful as the information is, it falls short of providing the business community with some practical workforce planning insights from an immigration perspective.
We are seeing signs that multiple industries and businesses will be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and will need to consider the impact of the evolving events on their workforce.
The simple reality is this - immigration is a complex area of law and policy, and is much more than a visa. Many governments have complex rules which impact different visa categories, and steps taken by a business to manage their workforce in times of change can often have an impact on a persons capacity to continue to hold their visa.
The following workforce management actions require more detailed guidance from suitably qualified advisors so as to avoid unintended consequences for the business and the visa holder. Please note that the immigration impact in these scenarios are most relevant to foreign nationals who are sponsored for their visa by their employer.
I recommend that you seek advice on the impact on your foreign national workforce in the following scenarios:
Benching employees
Many industries who employ large numbers of project workers "bench" their under-utilised workforce during times where work reduces. This is a very common and useful strategy to retain a skilled workforce on stand-by to deploy quickly once work increases.
However, depending on how the businesses benches the employee, including remuneration arrangements during their bench period, this strategy can have an adverse impact on the visa conditions of a foreign national.
Redeployment
In most cases, foreign nationals are granted their work visa based on the role they were nominated to fill with their employer. In many cases, during times where work diminishes in one area of the business but remains unchanged in others, the employer will explore options to redeploy the employee to different parts of the business rather than lose the under-utilised employee through redundancy.
This workforce management strategy can often have an adverse impact on a foreign national visa holder. This includes where the visa holder is redeployed to another location from the one which was originally nominated on their immigration application.
Redundancy
We have observed an increasing number of governments who are linking redundancies in a business to that business being able to employ foreign nationals for a defined period in the future. This could have a significant negative impact on a business as the economic circumstances improve.
Before making an foreign national visa holder redundant, it is important to confirm the extent of the impact of this decision on the ability to sponsor foreign nationals for a visa in the future.
Adjusting work hours (including leave without pay)
Most governments require a business to employ a foreign national visa holder full-time. The exact hours which meet the definition of full-time varies in different locations.
Before reducing work hours of foreign national visa holders, including requiring that they take leave without pay, it is important to seek guidance on any likely impact this action may have on visa holders.
Remote work arrangements (EG: work from home)
This can sometimes be a tricky area to advise on from an immigration perspective. As the trend towards virtual office environments, and flexible work arrangements increases, consideration needs to be given to whether a change in work location may inadvertently impact the conditions of the visa held.
For example, in a small number of locations, governments issue a visa on the basis of a defined work location - this can sometimes include working at a client site as opposed to primarily working at the employers premises.
Employment contract revisions
In many cases, the scenarios discussed here will not require a change to the employment contract. However, where a change to the employment contract is being contemplated, it is important to first check any impact on the visa holder's conditions.
Visa cancellation
In some circumstances, it may be more practical to simply cancel the visa held by the foreign national and for them to return to their home country location or be redeployed to another global location.
One important issue to consider in this scenario is any impact this workforce management strategy may have on ratios the employer is required to meet as part of their immigration sponsorship obligations with the host government.