In the UK, it is illegal to hire foreigners with no right to work there or to handle them incorrectly once they arrive. According to section 8 of the Asylum and Immigration Act of 1996, it is a criminal offense to give employment to someone who is 16 or over and is subject to immigration control, unless he or she is entitled to work in the UK. Fines for this type of crime can cost up to £5,000 per convicted offense.
Employers can defend themselves from the charges if they do a search of the person’s eligibility to work before actually hiring the individual in question. For this, the employer is required to get a copy of some of the person’s documents. The defense will be valid if it can’t be proved that the employer knew the person was not authorized to work in the United Kingdom when they hired him or her.
The searches can be easily included in the recruiting process; however, employers have to be very careful, because these checks may break the Race Relations Act of 1976 if they are used in a way that discriminates by racial motives.
The race legislation was introduced to protect people against discrimination. This law considers racial discrimination as discrimination by color, race, nationality, or ethnic or national origins. Discrimination can happen in two ways:
- Directly, where the employer treats the employee differently, in a negative way, due to race.
- Indirectly, where the employer asks employees to comply with what seems a neutral race stipulation, criterion, or practice that is really more difficult for individuals of certain races.
In terms of immigration, discrimination happens during recruiting. An employer may reject someone who looks different or speaks with an accent for fear of committing a crime. The UK law authorizes the request of documents that prove that a person has the right to work in the country, however, it is against the law to ask for these documents only from applicants the employer thinks could be foreign.
In 2001, the Government issued a Code of Practice for employers on the evasion of race discrimination during recruitment while, at the same time looking to minimize illegal workers. This code’s recommendations in regards to racial discrimination are:
- The employer must establish clear written recruitment and selection procedures based on equal and fair treatment for every person, and inform all the personnel about these.
- The employer should not make assumptions about a person’s condition based on color, race, nationality, ethnic origin, or the time he or she has been in the United Kingdom.
- The employer has to treat everyone in the same manner at each stage throughout the recruitment process. It should ask all the applicants for the same documents.
- The employer must never assume that the inability to present the documents requested means the person is an illegal worker. The applicant has to be directed towards the Citizen’s Advice Bureau to find help.
- The employer should control the results from recruiting and selection based on the ethnicity of the applicants.
The best way to comply with immigration UK law as well as with the Race Act is to make it a regular practice to ask for the appropriate documentation from all candidates, no matter their nationality, color, or accent.
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