Employment Law

You need to always protect your company. UK employers have been warned that if they take on illegal workers they could face a prison sentence and / or massive fines.

That is the message from a new campaign launched by the Government to promote new rules which took effect this month. It is essential that firms take notice of this new legislation. The Residence Office estimates it will price much more than £27m for companies to acquaint themselves with the new law which shows how critical it is for UK businesses to regard the changes.

For every single illegal worker you negligently hire, you could be fined up to £10,000 or face up to two years in prison, so this truly is a serious situation. It is all in a bid to crack down on illegal workers in Britain by placing much more emphasis on employers to take note of who they are employing and carry out proper background checks. This in effect means businesses should grow to be a lot much more proactive in demonstrating that they are adhering to these new laws.

Also if an employer is discovered to be breaking the law they could lose the proper to recruit from outside the European Union altogether. This puts pressure on recruitment agencies that specialise in foreign recruitment to make greater checks on the individuals that they refer to local UK businesses. It also gives a strong international message that the UK’s tougher new employment laws have made it more tough to work in Britain illegally. And for residents here in Britain it shows that there is a crackdown on illegal workers – all in aid of a wider shake-up of the immigration system as a entire.

The Border and Immigration Agency undertakes normal enforcement operations against illegal working in the UK, and in 2006, they carried out over 5,200 raids, removing a lot more than 22,000 people from the UK in only 1 year.

To acquire far more direct info the House Office has improved their aid line that claims to provide much more accurate and particular advice to companies.

Employers who condone illegal working attract illegal migrants, which indicates they can pay them much less cash and so undercut the wages that would be paid to legitimate employees. The new Government rules are designed to protect the UK’s workforce, and aid employers to run a price-effective but efficient company. There have been some concerns about racial discrimination instances against employers performing background checks, but this can quickly be avoided if your company has one process that is followed for each potential new applicant.

Employers of migrant workers, whose correct to work in the UK is not permanent, will have a new responsibility to make periodic checks on the existing workers’ entitlement rather than basically checking their status only once prior to employment begins.

It’s important that all British businesses familiarise themselves with the changes, and seek professional advice if they are unsure of the procedures they really should follow to make certain they don’t employ illegal workers. Obtaining professional advice and revising organization policies and procedures is a good way to safeguard the future of your enterprise and assure that you are adhering to the new legislation.

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