UK IMMIGRATION NEWS

UK Border Agency (UKBA) implements rigorous checks to prevent illegal workers

Friday, 24 April 2009

The UK Hospitality sector has seen the largest number of employers who have breached illegal working legislation since the UK Border Agency (UKBA) started to implement rigorous checks last year in order to prevent illegal working.

According to recently published UKBA figures, the majority of those fined in London and the South East in the period to 31 March 2009 have been hotels and restaurants. The fines imposed have been a minimum of £5,000 per illegal employee and one employer was fined £52,500 for employing 7 illegal workers.

As well as indicating that there is non-compliance in the Hospitality sector, the figures also demonstrate the UKBA target a specific industry sector, alerting any employer in the sector of regular checks by the UKBA. Employers are advised to make sure absolute compliance in order to avoid any potentially substantial damage to their businesses.

Under the old work permit system, the UKBA rejected the majority of applications for the role of chef as they questioned whether the role was sufficiently skilled. The table below shows the number of work permits approved from 2001 to 2008 when the scheme was closed and indicates what many employers may have experienced in relation to recruiting skilled chefs in 2007/8.

The difficulty in securing skilled chefs had now been relieved when the Tier 2 of the new points-based system replaced the work permit scheme in November 2008. Under the new system, the role of chefs is classified as a shortage occupation in the UK as long as they are paid over £8.10 per hour (approximately £17,000 pa). It means that the employer is not required to go through the resident labour market test to prove that there is no-EEA national available to fill the role before recruiting a worker from outside the EEA. This also means that the employer is not required to meet the minimum salary threshold (£24,000 where an employee does not have a qualification at or above NVQ3).

If you are interested in UK Visas, contact Migration Expert for information and advice on which visa is best suited to you. You can also try our visa eligibility assessment to see if you are eligible to apply for a visa to the UK.