Right to Work Checking

You may have noticed that the rules around employers' responsibilities for Right to Work were tightened on 29 February 2008.

Employers now face a penalty of £10,000 per illegal worker and potentially a custodial sentence of 2 years for knowingly employing an individual without the right to work in the UK. On Monday 4 May 2008, the BBC reported on the dramatic rise in prosecutions of firms employing staff who cannot demonstrate the right to work here: 137 employers have been caught in the 2 months since the rules changed in February. That is ten times the number caught in 2007 as a whole, and more than double the number prosecuted in the previous decade.

Interestingly, BBC reporters attended one operation with the Borders Agency at a chicken-part processing plant. Borders Agency staff and police burst into a room where 57 people were working and shouted 'Put your knives down now!'; 22 of the 57 were found to be illegal workers.

However, Right to Work checks are not the only issue around recruitment. There are some strong economic drivers around reducing the cost of fraud which, by a number of estimates, runs into £billions, and in the meantime many employers (33%) claim they simply do not have time to carry out checks on recruits. Of course, the Criminal Justice System may eventually give some of those individuals time to reflect on their priorities. And about half of organisations have dismissed someone or withdrawn a job offer for misrepresenting themselves.

As another sample 'war story' for you, John Prescott's department made the mistake of employing Robert Adewumni as a so-called 'troubleshooter'. Trouble he certainly was, as it turned out he was not a qualified accountant, he hid his criminal past and ended up stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds of our money. Robert was subsequently jailed for 4 years and his wife for 6 months.

So what can be done to try to prevent this kind of fraud and crime?

Well, solutions do exist which could have prevented that loss for as little as £12.00. Checking Robert's claim to be a qualified accountant would be a simple call to the relevant professional body. They would have reported back that he was indeed a member, but still a student and hence not qualified.

It would also be advisable to check academic qualifications, financial probity records, which are things like County Court Judgements, bankruptcies and Directorships. Criminal Record checks and validation of driving licences with the DVLA may be advisable for certain roles.   

A thorough background check would typically cost £50- £100, which is money well spent compared to the cost of:

• A £10,000 fine for recruiting an illegal worker.
• The £4-£8,000 it typically costs to recruit each individual.
• The potential cost of fraud.
• The potential damage to your organisation’s ‘brand’.