New aged care Labour Agreements

‘Aged care providers are now able to hire overseas workers with specialised skills that will support older Australians from multicultural backgrounds’

The Minister for Immigration’s website includes the following announcement:

Friday, 08 March 2019

Aged care labour agreements to support migrant communities

Aged care providers are now able to hire overseas workers with specialised skills that will support older Australians from multicultural backgrounds.

Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs David Coleman said these special visa arrangements will allow aged care facilities to access a personalised visa arrangement to hire employees with the skills to cater for the needs of their communities’ elderly.

“Australia has a long and proud history of migration. Aged care providers have identified a need for bilingual carers, as elderly people or those with dementia may revert to their native language or lose the ability to speak a second language,” Mr Coleman said.

“This visa arrangement demonstrates the Government’s commitment to migrant communities and those organisations who care for Australia’s elderly. It will greatly assist them in finding the right staff to deliver vital aged care services.”

“Company specific labour agreements will enable aged care providers to deliver specialised services that better understand a residents’ cultural needs.”

In delivering vital aged care services to the Australian community, aged care providers can request a company specific labour agreement to sponsor skilled overseas workers for a Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa, or an Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) visa.

Labour agreements will only be considered where it is demonstrated that Australians cannot fill skill shortages and standard work visa programs cannot be utilised.

The company specific labour agreement enables aged care providers to access overseas workers where they previously have been unable to, as the required occupation is not on the list of eligible skilled occupations.


Disclaimer: the above is a mere extract of a webpage. The views there expressed might not reflect the views of the Department, the AAT or the courts. The law or policies might have changed between the writing and reading of this article. The author of this article and Migration Law Updates disclaim any liability for any action (or omission) on their part based on any information provided (or not provided) in this article and are under no obligation to keep the general public nor practitioners informed about the matters discussed in this article or any other matters, or any future changes to any of those matters. It is the responsibility of each practitioner to obtain access to primary sources of law and policy by themselves and to carry out their own research and come to their own conclusions on legislation, case law, policies and more. This article is not intended for the general public.


Sergio Zanotti Stagliorio is a Registered Migration Agent (MARN 1461003). He is the owner of Target Migration in Sydney. He can be reached at sergio@targetmigration.com.au

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