The UK Borders Agency has published guidance on how to check an employee’s right to work using a Biometric Residence Permit.
The biometric residence permit is proof of the holder’s right to stay, work or study in the UK. It can also be used as a form of identification (for example, if they wish to open a bank account in the UK). The holder is not required to carry their permit at all times, but they must show it at the border, together with their passport, when travelling outside of, and when returning to, the UK. Employers have a responsibility to check that prospective employees have a right to work in the UK. Foreign nationals issued with a biometric residence permit must show it to employers before they start work. Employers can accept this, alongside other recommended documents, to confirm the identity and right to work of prospective employees. The UK Borders Agency has published guidance which shows the features of the permits and how to check them. There is also a free online checking service which can be used to check Biometric Residence Permits.
TESCO FACES FINES OVER MIGRANT BREACHES
29 August 2012
Even one of the country’s biggest supermarket chains can get it wrong. Tesco faces fines of up to £200,000 after foreign student employees were found to be working longer hours than their visas allowed. An investigation by the UK Borders Agency found that foreign students were working longer hours than their visas allowed at the firm’s Croydon warehouse, which supplies groceries for online customers.
Agency officers arrested 20 employees of mostly Indian and Bangladeshi nationality and it has been reported that seven of them have been deported.
This group of foreign students had the right to work in the UK but only for 20 hours a week. However, officers found the students had been working between 50 and 70 hours, supposedly in tandem with studying an educational course.
Tesco has been issued with a ‘notice of potential liability’ by the agency and fines could be as much as £10,000 per worker.
Read the full story from People Management
ABERDEENSHIRE BUSINESSES FINED MORE THAN £28,000 FOR EMPLOYING ILLEGAL WORKERS
16 October 2012
Four Aberdeenshire restaurants have been fined a total of £28,750 in civil penalties for employing illegal workers, details recently published by the UK Border Agency show.
As part of the ongoing crackdown into illegal working, the takeaways and restaurants were visited in late 2011 and January this year.
All 4 businesses were issued with potential fine notices for employing illegal workers. They were then given an opportunity to prove that the correct right-to-work checks were made before the workers were taken on. They failed to do so and have now been handed fines of
CIPP Policy News Journal
12/04/2013, Page 31 of 362
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