Research clinic:Preventing illegal working
 Do we have to check our interviewers’ right to work in the UK?
 The current legislation on this issue is the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, which came into force in February 2008. It updates a series of similar legislation starting in 1996, creating stronger civil and criminal penalties for engaging illegal migrant workers.
Companies engaging interviewers as workers are subject to this legislation, i.e. they have a duty to check that interviewers are authorised to work in the UK before offering them work.
The legislation specifies which documents are acceptable. This list of documents is too detailed to be provided here. However, there is extensive guidance available from the UK Borders site: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/employers/preventingillegalworking/.
It is important to note that the checks are about the right to work, not about identification alone, so the documents listed relate to nationality and immigration status. Drivers’ licences or utility bills, for example, are not acceptable documents.
Which interviewers should we check?
You should check all interviewers who are retained as workers. The prevention of illegal working can often raise race discrimination issues. When carrying out checks on workers, employers must be careful not to use discriminatory recruitment practices. The best way to ensure that you do not discriminate is to treat all applicants in the same way at each stage of the recruitment process. For example, if you provide>information to prospective applicants, or ifyou supply application forms, you should also include a reminder that successful shortlisted applicants will be required to produce an acceptable document or combination of documents.
|
Site Map
