Employers risk jail over illegal workers

Posted by HR Zone in Employment law on Fri, 29/02/2008 - 14:49

On the day that the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 comes in to force, a new survey highlights that business owners are currently putting themselves at risk of fines and legal action as they are not doing enough to verify the legality of their employees.

A joint survey run by BusinessZone.co.uk and HRZone.co.uk found that 34% of small businesses had no process in place at all to verify the legality of workers. Even in larger businesses with a dedicated HR function, 37% leave it until the candidate has accepted a job offer.

The survey asked 120 businesses at what point in the recruitment process they verify the legality of new employees and answers ranged from "on receipt of CV" to "not at all".

Under the 2006 Act, the approach towards illegal working is even stricter; key changes to the current law include a civil penalty for those that employ illegal migrant workers, of up to £10,000 per employee.

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Editor's Welcome

 

Hello! I'm a great believer in the power of stories, whether they be folk tales, novels, films or TV dramas.
 
They have a wonderful ability to get complex moral or social issues over to us in a palatable, easy-to-understand way and can provide many lessons if only we care to look just a little bit below the surface.
 
But they can also act as a fun starting point for discussion and debate on rather more serious topics that are all too often brushed under the carpet and ignored.
 

Hence our decision to start up a Review slot on the site to look at those everyday stories that are all around us from an HR perspective.

Although we've been publishing book reviews (take a look at our Book Club list of suggested possible non-fiction works for evaluation here) for some time, you may also have noticed that we've been running a weekly home page blog on The Apprentice courtesy of The Chemistry Group for a while now.

And Pauline Wood, managing director at specialist retail headhunter, court & spark consulting, was likewise kind enough to write our first film review on the Headhunters movie.

But the big question is, why don't you give it a go yourself? There's a world of choice out there and I, like the rest of the community, would love to hear your thoughts and insights.

So next time you watch a movie, see a TV drama or read a novel that you think has an HR message worth sharing, send your review to me at cath.everett@siftmedia.co.uk or post it directly to our blogs section at www.hrzone.co.uk/blogs.

So get critiquing and look forward to hearing from you very soon.....

Cath Everett
HRZone Editor 
 
 
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