Immigration: Right to Work Checks – are yours up to date?

Since the beginning of 2021, the Immigration team have been extremely busy undertaking audits on organisations to ensure that they are compliant with their right to work checks.

With the UK’s exit from the European Union, many organisations are becoming increasingly concerned as to whether their right to work checks are compliant. There has recently been an important update to the Employers’ guide to right to work checks.

Right to work checks are extremely important as they provide a statutory excuse against unlawful employment. A right to work check must be conducted for all employees and potential employees, irrespective of their nationality. This includes British nationals.

Previously, European nationals were treated as British nationals. However, this has of course changed. Further guidance on right to work checks for EEA and Swiss nationals during the grace period (1 January to 30 June 2021) has been released.
The guidance confirms that there will be no mandatory requirement for retrospective checks to be undertaken on EEA nationals employed on or before 30 June 2021. Employers will maintain a continuous statutory excuse against a civil penalty in the event of illegal working if the initial right to work check was undertaken in line with right to work legislation and in line with the guidance.

Should you be interested in having an audit of your files, contact Julie Moktadir.  Coming soon, we will also be releasing a right to work check training tool which will help you undertake checks and assist you to have a lawful statutory excuse.