The Home Office and Insolvency Service are committed to removing illegal workers and those who employ them from the market place to reduce the impact of illegal working on honest employers, legitimate jobseekers and the tax payer.
In a countrywide crackdown on the employment of illegal workers, 20 directors of restaurants and takeaways have been banned from being company directors for 6 years or more.
Following investigations by the Home Office the businesses were found to be employing a total of 41 illegal workers. They were issued with fines of between £10,000 and £15,000 per illegal worker, totalling £505,000 between them. None of the businesses paid their fine.
The investigation was taken up by the Insolvency Service who issued the disqualifications – which mean that the individuals cannot act as a director of a company or take part in the promotion, formation or management of a company for a restricted period.
Your obligations as a director
As a company director you are obliged to ensure that your business complies with its statutory obligations under The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006. You must ensure that relevant immigration checks are completed and that copy documents are retained. If these checks are not carried out it may result in the illegal workers being employed, as a result of which the company may be fined. If you carry out the required document checks correctly before you employ a worker then you will have a “statutory excuse” if it turns out that the individual you employed was an illegal worker after all.
For further details of the checks you must undertake see Freeths Guide to Immigrant Workers and Illegal Working
