From 29 February 2008, the penalty scheme for employing illegal workers will be tougher. Employers who employ illegal migrant workers are liable to a new civil penalty. The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 and secondary legislation, namely the Immigration (Employment of Adults Subject to Immigration Control) (Maximum Penalty) Order 2007 and the Immigration (Restrictions on Employment) Order 2007 orders these new provisions.

The changes

The Act makes it unlawful to employ an adult subject to immigration control if they do not have valid leave to enter or remain in the UK and who doesn’t have permission to do the work offered.

• Employers who engage illegal immigrant workers face a maximum penalty of £10,000 for each illegal worker (previously £5,000 under the Asylum & Immigration Act 1996).
• The employer in breach may be served with a civil penalty notice requiring payment and must pay unless he can show that he has complied with the “statutory excuse”.
• If the employer can show that he checked the validity of the documents produced by the immigrant and that he retained a copy of such documents for no les than two years, the “statutory excuse” will apply. Of course the employer must come with clean hands − if it can be shown that he knew that the employment was illegal, he will not be excused.
• The Act creates a new responsibility for employers to check the ongoing entitlement for certain migrant workers to work in the UK at least once every 12 months.
• A new criminal offence of “knowingly” employing an illegal migrant will carry a maximum 2 year prison sentence and/or an unlimited fine.

What to look for on the documents

Once the applicant has provided the necessary documents, you must check their authenticity. The documents must be originals − photocopies, printouts or other copies are not acceptable.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 3:52 pm and is filed under Employment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.