Secure hiring: The importance of right to work checks for legally employing workers in the UK
By: Claire, redwigwam
As a small business owner, you may be new to being an employer. It’s important to make sure you are meeting all the legal requirements of hiring and paying staff, which includes conducting right to work checks to ensure all the people you employ are legally allowed to work in the UK.
In this blog post, we’ll look at why this is so important, and offer some practical information on ensuring you are employing your staff legally.
Why is it important to ensure your workers have the right to work in the UK?
As an employer, you are legally required to make sure all the people you employ have the right to work in the UK.
The ability to work illegally is a driver of illegal migration, and leaves people vulnerable to exploitation, meaning they may not be paid appropriately, or fairly for the work they carry out.
It can also negatively impact people who are working legally and is often linked to other labour market abuse like tax evasion, not paying workers national minimum wage and even exploitation and modern slavery in the most serious cases.
What happens if you don’t employ workers legally?
If you are caught, the penalties for employing someone illegally are severe.
You can be sent to jail for 5 years and pay an unlimited fine if you are found guilty of employing someone who you knew, or had ‘reasonable cause to believe’, did not have the right to work in the UK.
You can also be penalised if you employ someone who does not have the right to work, and you did not do the correct checks or did not do them properly.
This can be a fine of up to £20,000 per illegal worker (which is likely to increase to £60,000 per illegal worker early in 2024).
Plus also think of the damage this will do to your business or brand reputation.
When is someone considered not to have the right to work in the UK?
There are several reasons someone does not have the right to work in the UK. These include:
- They did not have permission to enter or remain in the UK.
- Their leave had expired.
- They were not allowed to do certain types of work.
- Their papers were incorrect or false.
As an employer you must ensure all people you employ, whether on a permanent or casual basis, have the right to work in the UK.
What does my business need to do to ensure we don’t employ workers illegally?
As an employer, you must check your employees have the right to work in the UK and make sure their documents are valid.
This is called a right to work check.
You must do this for every person you employ, whatever type of contract they are on. You must keep the proof of this right to work check for the duration of the workers employment, and for two years afterwards.
After this, it should be securely destroyed.
What is a right to work check?
A right to work check is a Home Office process to establish an employee or casual employer has the right to work in the UK.
It means you must check a document which is acceptable for showing permission to work. You must do this before they begin employment, to ensure they are legally allowed to work for you.
If an employee has a time limited right to work in the UK, you must also conduct any follow up checks as needed.
You must do this before they start work for you.
How do I do a right to work check?
For British and Irish citizens, you need to check their original documents – for example a passport. The full list of accepted documents is available here on gov.uk.
Once you have established they have the right to work in the UK, you are not required to carry out any further checks.
You do need to keep a clear copy of the document for your records, which should be stored for the duration of their employment and then for two years afterwards.
For other nationalities, the worker should have a share code which you can input through the gov.uk website.
Be aware they may have tine limited working restrictions (such as a visa expiring after a certain date, or limits on the number of hours they are allowed to work), and you will be required to carry out follow up checks.
How can redwigwam help?
Redwigwam includes right to work checks as part of the registration process for their workers.
This means any workers who apply for your roles posted on our platform have the right to work in the UK.
If you then pay them through our payroll, you do not need to conduct any further checks of your own.
Redwigwam is their employer and will keep all required records, including limits on the hours they are able to work. Redwigwam will also conduct any required follow up checks on workers whose permission to work in the UK is time limited.
This mitigates your risk completely.
If you choose to take the worker to your own payroll, you need to then carry out your own right to work checks, keep records of this and carry out any follow up checks.
In conclusion, checking your employees have the right to work in the UK is a legal obligation and the penalties for employing illegal workers are severe.
Remember:
- You should not employ anyone who you have not carried out right to work checks on.
- You should not take the risk of hiring anyone who you know, or have reasonable cause to believe, does not have the right to work in the UK.
- The penalties for doing so are serious and damaging to your brands reputation.
- Using redwigwam mitigates this risk as all workers are employed by us and vetted for their right to work in the UK as part of the registration process.
