Illegal Working Compliance

As all immigration solicitors and lawyers can advise, an employer has legal requirement to ensure that all their employees has legal permission to work in the UK. This requirement is enforced by the UK Border Agency with increasing robustness, with publicised raids occurring on UK businesses.

How to employers avoid these fines?

A system of checks has been developed by the UKBA. If they are carried out then even if a staff member has no permission to work a fine can be avoided.

The checks can be complex. There are varieties of checks and combinations of documents that need to inspected, often depending on the immigration status and nationality of the employee.

Once an employer has checked the documents and the immigration status of all of their staff, they must ensure records are kept. It is important to record and retain the documentation, ideally on the premise where the staff works.

It is important to note that these checks, if carried out properly, cannot be used to migrants to bring a race discrimination case. This does not mean that employers should not take steps to ensure everyone is treated fairly.

All employees must be checked at equal intervals and in the same manner irrespective of their ethnicity or nationality.

Westkin have assisted hundreds of businesses and individuals in their immigration matters.

We provide a turnkey approach to all immigration matters and we also provide, through partners a complete employer service. We will tell what to do, and provide systems to do it.

What we do for you:

• Initial assessment of current processes
• Immigration audits
• Document inspection and checking for all new hires, even before the job is offered;
• Bespoke and In House Seminars and training

Contact our leading immigration lawyers for an initial, friendly and no-obligation chat.

info@westkin.com

© 2011 Westkin - London Immigration Lawyers