The government have announced that the COVID19 temporary guidance ends on the 20th June. Physical checks of ID documents for Right to Work will need to start from the 20th June (changed from the 17th May) – are you ready?

How do you:

• Notify all your staff?
• Know the right combinations of documents have been captured?
• Ensure the documents presented are real?
• Your process remains GDPR Compliant?

However there are some options, offer further training, or alternatively, use our technology. Our solution uAuthenticate mobile:

• Is always up-to-date with the Right to Work Home Office guidance
• Through it’s wizard driven process, ensures your staff have captured the right combination of documents
• Uses your mobile phone to authenticate the documents and help you spot any fakes
• From a GDPR perspective, is secure and stores the documents in the cloud using the latest encryption technologies. Removes paper and stores all you information in a central cloud service.

Right to Work rule changes continue to be in the spotlight

With continual changes (the most recent example is between April and May the physical checks were required from 17th May; on the 12th May this has changed to the 21st June) it is essential to ensure you remain compliant with the employment landscape. It’s a long and winding road from the initial Brexit and the transition period especially when the Home Office guidance is being constantly updated and key milestones arrive.

Consequently, How do you manage to keep up?

From 1st July this year, there are different requirements when employing EU citizens. Specifically, EU citizens (aside from Irish citizens) must have a valid UK immigration status under the European Temporary Leave to Remain scheme, the EU Settlement scheme, or be sponsored through the new points-based immigration system.

Under the latest guidance if you employ an EU citizen who does not have appropriate immigration endorsement and who has not submitted a valid application under the EU Settlement scheme after 30 June 2021, they will be classed as an illegal immigrant.

There is a real risk that employers will face legal consequences for employing an illegal immigrant.

Forgive this hard hitting message about compliance.

For Right to Work, if your employee:

• Does not have permission to remain in the UK;
• Had permission to remain but it has expired;
• Is not allowed to do certain types of work; or
• Has incorrect or false papers;

….. you cloud be guilty of illegally employing an individual

The Home Office guidance indicates that company directors have a risk of personal liability if found to be employing illegal immigrants. The offense is a criminal one and comes into play if:

• you employ someone you know lacks the right to work in the UK,
• have reasonable cause to believe that to be the case,
• Suspect the worker is illegal.

Forget the £20,000 fine per illegal, as those found guilty of knowingly employing illegal workers can face unlimited fines and a jail term of up to five years.

In summary, changes to the new immigration system were announced before the UK left the EU in March 2019. Consequently, company directors are expected to know about the Home Office guidance for Right to Work. The Governments media have done their job well especially so in 2021.  Therefore, claiming ignorance would be an uphill struggle for any director to argue.

Technology and Right to Work represents a good answer

Fortunately, for Right to Work help is at hand with uAuthenticate

Contact us to find out more.

Alternatively, if you have a largely paper based process you could also take the opportunity to look at how simply we could help you create one digital flow for onboarding of staff through:

• Increasing efficiency
• Ensuring your staff follow your process
• Enhancing Security of data storage
• Eliminating paper

Finally, one for you to consider, uOnboard could be a great first step to digitsing your recruitment process and improving green credentials too.

The post Right to Work – Physical ID checks are needed from the 21st June appeared first on uComply.

If you actively employ European workers are you prepared?

Do you know what is happening with your existing workers?

Is there anything I can do to help with my existing staff?

From the 1st January 2021 for new European employees I’ve summarised the changes into 3 key points below for the new RTW rules. If:

• The employee has been resident in the UK for more than 5 years they should provide you with an EU settled status code. You, as an employer need to check this with the Home Office online portal
• The employee has been resident before the 31st December 2020 they should provide you with an EU pre-settled status code. Again, as an employer, you check this on the Home office portal but, make a note of the expiry date.
• They have arrived after 31st December 2020 and cannot produce an endorsement that you can validate. Then they are required to be sponsored under the new points-based system. However, employers have a duty not to discriminate against EU, EEA or Swiss citizens. You cannot require them to show you their status under the EU Settlement Scheme until after 30 June 2021. Therefore, You’ll need to check a job applicant’s right to work in the same way as now until 30 June 2021.

If you have existing workers who are from Europe then until June 2021 the current guidance remains in force. The employer does not have to police that their staff have applied for settled status. In short, EU/EEA nationals will be able to present their passports and/or ID cards to confirm their right to work in the UK.

Hiring from the 1st July remains unspecified and employers will need to check that EU/EEA nationals have appropriate endorsements. The Home Office in their new guidance document* (see note below) have indicated that they will update the guidance on how to conduct right to work checks on EEA nationals after 30 June 2021 in advance of this date.

Sounds confusing? It is important that employers check the governments’ guidance to ensure compliance. We can help with our virtual Right to Work training. Get in touch if you’d like to know more.

What can employers do in lieu of the New RTW rules?

A number of our clients have asked “what do we need to do”?

Template letter re the EU settlement scheme

In the short term the onus is firmly on the employee to prove their status.

For existing staff the Home Office suggests that employers may wish to communicate to their current EU staff informing them about the EU settlement scheme.

Points to note about your staff:

As the scheme is voluntary your staff do not have to apply:

• They do not need to apply if they are Irish citizens but still can do so.
• Not required if they have indefinite leave to remain or enter. However they can do so.
• As an employer you must not discriminate against EU nationals.
• It is important to note that if you need specific advice regarding the above you should contact an immigration expert.

We have a number of immigration firms who we can recommend.

For those employers who have a need to employ from the EU under the skilled worker scheme then you may wish to apply to become a Sponsor employer. There is a charge to be a Sponsor (from £536 PA) and additionally, a cost per individual worker dependent on the type of visa. For full details about the UK points based immigration system click here.

uAuthenticate will of course always be kept up-to-date as and when the guidance changes.

*The new guidance issued on the 17 December 2020 can be viewed here in detail.

Finally, if you have any questions please get in touch. Please use the ‘contact us’ message or, call 01707 802899

The post New RTW rules are coming appeared first on uComply.

Technology helps your recruitment process consistently comply with the regulations in place, thereby reducing your training requirements and key person dependencies.

A great benefit of using technology and digitising your process is that you can:

• eliminate paper
• increase security of PII
• enhance your green credentials

We at uComply are looking at ways where we can help all businesses get back on the ‘right footing’.

In June we launched our Return to Work offer of a uAuthenticate Mobile licence for a donation to charity. Our chosen charity is NHS Charities Together (registered charity no. 1186569).

We are also offering our web based solution uAuthenticate Web free of charge during the COVID-19 period. This allows your onboarding process to fully comply with the new temporary change to the Home Office Right to Work guidance.

We have recently become an accredited ‘Made in Britain’ company. We hope our contributions can help companies have confidence for a safe Return to Work.

Embrace technology to ensure your Right to Work process is correct and at the same time help stimulate Britain’s recovery.

In summary, we believe that if everyone pulls together we can get through whatever COVID-19 throws at us.

Call us to see how our process driven technology can help you.

The post Return to Work – what you need to consider appeared first on uComply.

The world is changing. When we return to work we need to protect ourselves and our staff. One way is to ensure no-one has a temperature when entering your premises.

As a result, one major change in our approach to working, needs to look at the health of our staff and visitors. In other words “how are you doing” is a question that has a new meaning.

In this brave new world how can you be safe? Have good access control processes in place? Ensure all your staff are present?

SKO systems solution Therma Check will actively scan the temperature of staff and visitors with alerts for high temperatures and the option of facial recognition.

How you like to ensure the safety of your staff and visitors? Therma Check

• Will alert you if their temperature is high
• Is contact-less
• Has facial recognition
• Is a stand alone portable self-contained unit and gets power from a built in battery or mains

A very simple solution to keep everyone safe.

Entry control without the need for contact

With the option of facial recognition you use this to

• Prevent unauthorised access
• Ensure visitors are registered correctly
• Check staff in and out

Consequently, you can ensure that you follow your security protocols all the time. Meanwhile if an evacuation takes place you can see if all visitors and staff have left the building. Moreover, with a simple API you can connect into your time and attendance solution.

In summary you could check everyone’s temperature when entering your premises, ensure they are meant to be there and finally fully integrate this into your own systems.

SKO are our development partners helping us deliver the quality solutions that our clients rely upon. In the current climate we believe Therma Check will be of interest to all employers / facility managers who want to ensure the safety of their staff / visitors.

If you’d like to know more please fill out our contact form and we will send you information. Alternatively you can call and we can help you find your ideal solution.

The post Temperature monitoring solution SKO Therma Check appeared first on uComply.

• Employers need to read the governments guidance on how to maintain social distancing on their premises. Don’t forget the environment the employees work within immediately around the presmises.
• Have you considered your employees mental health and are they ready to RTW?
• Is the time to RTW, right for your business?

Most of the stories in the media concern themselves with the spread of COVID-19. However, when you look ‘under the hood’ many staff are anxious and even scared! The slowing of the infections has come at a cost both financially and mentally. Business economics urges us to RTW, but as I’ve advocated before, your staff are one of your most important assets. If they are unhappy or worried then they may not be as effective as they normally are. If this is the case then the commercial viability for your business may suffer.

Are there any steps we can take around mental health awareness?

As an employer and out of interest I’ve taken a couple of online mental health assessments to see how well I fair. Suffice to say I do have some ‘lockdown fatigue’ symptoms where I actually thought I was doing quite well.
I’ve now asked my staff to complete the same questionnaires and answer them honestly. I have explained there are no repercussions besides getting an independent view of where their ‘head is at’. They can choose to share the results or not, it is up to them. Having all been working from home since march my colleagues surprisingly are fairing admirably well from a mental health point of view.

The two sites I selected were, Test your Well being and the NHS mood assessment. Whilst I chose these there are many options available both free and paid for that help you determine a level of mental robustness.

So, I urge employers and employees to be open and transparent with each other so that mental health can be addressed when considering RTW.

If you have any questions speak to your leaders and voice your concerns.

Stefan

The post Mental health and RTW – listen to your staff appeared first on uComply.

Businesses of all sizes are facing a number of employment challenges when it comes to the onboarding of staff. From our research we found three challenges consistently came up as important:

Green credentials – Environmental impact is important to all. Gartner believes between 1 & 3% of a companies revenue can be spent on printing services. Each employee can utilise 8000 sheets PA and that’s one equivalent to one Tree!
Compliance – when employing workers we need to ensure that all onboarding steps have taken place. Examples include Health and Safety, training, GDPR compliance and information capture is accurate and consistent across the the recruitment process.
Cost & efficiency – Margins are tight you need to reduce cost, maximum controls and be able to demonstrate their full compliance to management at a glance

It may surprisingly to some of you that the Cleaning and FM sectors require very high levels of compliance. When you combine this with the need to present a low environmental footprint there is an impact on margins.

Our innovation the “Employment Challenge” speaks to all the above.

The removal of paper speaks directly to the green credentials of the environmental challenge.

However, most people forget about the peripherals in use with paper.

You get an instant reduction in printer and toner use together with less space for storage of the printing, going green looks cheaper.

Lastly, avoid the need for unnecessary travel and time when you ensure the process is right the first time.

The next Employment Challenge is compliance. You start with the right to work. Then you need to ensure training and health and safety with documentation for proof. Finally you can employ/pay your staff. Any breaks in this process result in risk to either the individual or the business and a reduction in efficiency.

The CSSA’s Deputy Chairman Sean caught up with the MD and Operations director after uComply’s innovation presentation which you can see below:

The actual Innovation showcase event was due to be on the 19th March sadly, COVID-19 has got in the way.We will let you know when it is rescheduled.

Finally, you don’t have to wait for the showcase why not contact us to find out how we look to satisfy the Employment challenge.

The post The Employment Challenge for Onboarding appeared first on uComply.

Furthermore, it’s no idle threat. The government firmly placed the spotlight on illegal workers in the construction sector with Operation Magnify. So far firms have paid hundreds of thousands in fines, and directors have been sentenced to decades in prison.

We’ve heard that the Home Office strongly suggest that Tier 1 suppliers take overall ownership, but the rules apply to every employer – from the main contractor to subbies, to agencies supplying labourers and other short-term site personnel.

Fortunately, you have an easy, foolproof and failsafe solution. uAuthenticate.

How uAuthenticate guarantees your compliance

It’s like having an insurance-backed policy to give you the Statutory Excuse that protects you against fines and worse. It’s the only ID authentication system in the UK to contain Home Office guidelines. Considering all this, it’s a fraction of the cost of a single fine, and with our new mobile app, every HR officer and every site manager can play their part in protecting your business. At the risk of repetition wouldn’t it be great having an ID checking solution on every one of your sites to ensure your compliance?

The uAuthenticate scanner solution checks every visible and invisible fact and security feature on more than 3,000 ID documents and visas from 200 countries. It:

• Scans in ultraviolet, infrared and white light
• Extracts RFID (chip) data, including biometrics
• Issues a clear pass or fail in just seconds
• Creates and stores a complete audit trail for every worker and every document
• Alerts you to imminent visa expiries
• Helps you pass UKVI inspections
• Provides a Statutory Excuse and is continually updated with the current Home Office guidelines.

Is your company’s health and safety record – and public reputation – at risk?

Did you know that the quality of fake passports, ID cards and Biometric cards in circulation is on the increase, whilst at the same time becoming more affordable.

Fake IDs can have other, far more dangerous repercussions than a financial hit and a stint in jail. In addition fraudulent documents can help unqualified workers bypass the security system in obtaining Construction Skills Certification Scheme and Construction Plant Certification Scheme cards.

A recent article appeared in construction enquirer only last week where an illegal used fake documentation to obtain a CSCS card.

No diligent contractor wants unsafe workers putting people and buildings at risk.

Probably as a result of this the Considerate Constructors scheme now include a question asking how building sites are checking Right to Work documentation.

As a result it’s another section of compliance in their audit criteria you need to be aware of.

Have you considered if your insurance policies pay out in the event of an accident, especially if workers are in breach of Right to Work?

So in summary – our ID checking solution uAuthenticate protects your:

• Finances
• Reputation
• Site management and directors
• workers

Safe, legal building sites are the priority for any responsible employer – uAuthenticate doesn’t just protect you financially and legally, it compliments your best practice in site management as a partner to your CSR and health and safety.

Contact us today to trial uAuthenticate for two obligations – for free and with no obligation. Most of all why not find out how to create a foolproof ID checking solution for your company.

The post Foolproof ID checking solution for the construction industry appeared first on uComply.

With an extensive background in the recruitment industry (over 25 years) I am familiar with the use of Personal Service Companies (PSC) and Umbrellas in the industry. When it comes to checking that the individual supplied to the end user client has the right to work in the UK, who has that responsibility? Remember, illegal working is a crime.

In the case of a PSC it could well be argued that it is the responsibility of the limited company concerned. But, let’s not kid ourselves here. Is an illegal worker who sets up their own PSC going to check their own right to work documents?

I have long been concerned about the potential for illegal working to be going on via the use of PSC and Umbrella companies in this part of the process.

Example case: We recently received a call from a locum agency who had a doctor registering with them. He had his own PSC and had been working via another agency for a few years. This particular locum agency were seeking clarification. He had a valid Croatian passport but, he did not have a Home Office endorsement and, he had never had one!  Therefore, he did not have the right to work in the UK. He had circumvented this by setting up his own PSC and supplying his services via this PSC. Therefore he was working illegally in the UK, potentially knowingly. Since May 2016 the Immigration Act has expanded the definition for knowingly to include suspects or, has reason to believe that a person is attempting to be an illegal worker.

Some Confusion reigns

From other conversations I’ve had over the last couple of years, some Umbrellas said that they relied on the recruitment businesses to perform the Right to Work (RTW) checks, whilst some agencies take a PSC contractor as having the RTW and depend on the Umbrella or the PSC to have checked this.

One recruitment business owner went as far to tell me that he did not perform RTW checks. He only supplied staff via their own PSCs or via Umbrellas. He beleives they have the responsibility for ensuring compliance with the Home Office guidance. Ultimately it is the employer of the worker who has the responsibility and if they are found to have illegal workers. As a result, they are the first port of call for any fines. But, in this scenario where does the responsibility lie?

As a diligent recruitment business you should ensure that all workers that you supply have the Right to Work in the UK, no matter the terms under which they are engaged by you (regardless of whether they are employed through a PSC, via an Umbrella or directly engaged via PAYE) ……..

I’m not saying that all PSCs or Umbrellas are guilty here. But, having sampled such a small subset of this population and found a level of inconsistency. Could this be the ‘tip of the iceberg’?

Get it wrong and you could face a £20,000 fine (per illegal worker). Risk a prison sentence and suffer the ensuing reputational damage. Why take that chance?

Simplify and standardise your compliance process for Right to Work with our solution uAuthenticate with built in Home Office guidance.

Why not give me a call and have a conversation as to how we could help you protect your business from illegal working.

The post PSC or Umbrella contractors: A route to illegal working? appeared first on uComply.

It’s worth remembering that guidance is only guidance and does not expressly give you an ultimate correct answer but guide you to one. In addressing the  matter  surrounding  umbrella  companies or more so the ambiguity and the opaqueness surrounding immigration guidance for Right to Work, first we must define an umbrella company. An umbrella company is a company that acts as an employer to agency contractors who work under a fixed term contract assignment, usually through a recruitment employment agency in the United Kingdom.

In previous correspondence Nick Alker make a point of highlighting:

UKBA (Tier 2&5 of the Points Based System – Guidance for Sponsors V02/14) states in para 5.8: If you are a sponsor that wants to employ a migrant worker who has been supplied to you by an employment agency or business, you can only assign a certificate of sponsorship (CoS) if you: a) have full responsibility for deciding the duties, functions and outcomes, or outputs of the job the migrant is doing. b) Are responsible for agreeing and paying the migrant’s salary.

This is more concerned with an agency simply facilitating you with a migrant worker that would fall under the scope of your sponsor licence.

To clearly define the issue that Nick Alker makes ultimately the question is THE AGENCY/umbrella or that provides the third party with staff using the agency/umbrella sponsor licence as appose to the third party being the sponsor, therefore the definitive question can be found under paragraph 5.6

5.6 If you are an employment agency or employment business, you can apply for a sponsor licence but only to sponsor migrant workers who will be employed by you connected with the running of your business. You can’t sponsor a migrant who you then supply to a third party as labour, regardless of any contractual arrangement between the parties involved.

If an Umbrella company can be referred to as an employment business, and that business is purely providing contract staff to the third party organisation a coin of phrase for this type of practice is cloaked employment or disguised employment, I’m sure this is a term many people in HR will be familiar with.

The introduction of the Points Based System (PBS) in 2008 and creation of Tier 1 (General) (T1G)) might have contributed to the matter as a T1G visa the migrant does not fall within the scope of Tier 2 work and are therefore responsible for regulating their own immigration status – there was nothing preventing the contractor setting up as a limited company as T1G and becoming contracted to a third company effectively becoming de facto employee, responsible for their own tax, national insurance, immigration; this abuse of the system has been closed down with the removal of Tier 1 (General) in 2011 however there are still migrants on Tier 1 General visas which have yet to expire.

s15 IANA 2008 states – to establish an excuse you the employer must take all reasonable steps to ensure the person working on your site or premises has the right to work, (if I had a pound for every time I get told somebody else is responsible for carrying out the checks or we outsource it I would have made a fortune). You will get sanctioned if this is the case. Also it is worth baring in mind that if the Home Office can prove you knew you were employing someone illegally you could be facing a criminal sanction.

It is a matter of striking a fair balance between immigration guidance/law and industry; on the other hand there are perfectly legitimate organisations that have “recruitment” in their business title that could lead you to believe this practice is still happening

To articulate my point concerning agencies allow me to use the following analogy: if the umbrella company providing contract employees’ has agreed a higher level service contract with the end client (what I mean by that is not just for the provision of contract staff.) let’s say ‘Airplanes Engineering & Recruitment Ltd’ (AER) (a fictitious company)) tender for a contract to service maintain and wash aeroplanes flying in and out of ‘prop wash junction’ (PWJ) (a third party fictitious company).

Airplanes Engineering & Recruitment (AER) (the umbrella)) recruit themselves to provide specialist migrant engineering staff to service and maintain the contract. Therefore AER are employing their own staff to service their contract with the third party client. The staff are not employees’ of prop wash junction (third party) nor the airline carriers coming in and out of prop wash junction, they are the employees of AER this is a perfectly legitimate practice.

The complexity of immigration is within the contracts PWJ has a contract with air carriers to use the airport to facilitate a place where engineering and maintenance can be carried out PWJ then has a contract with AER to service and maintain the aircraft, AER then employ migrant contractors to work at PWJ servicing the air carrier’s aeroplanes. Although PWJ are facilitators and AER are located at PWJ working for different air carrier companies they remain employed by AER.

There is no reported case law that supports this part of the Home Office guidance that I am aware of.

If you’re unsure seek legal advice.

I will press my point of striking a balance and fairness by saying-

If businesses cannot obtain the correct staff in the UK they will leave these UK taking lucrative contracts with them –

This is already the case in the aircraft services industry. Five years ago the United Kingdom was the biggest international hub for servicing aircraft globally, bring in hundreds of millions of pounds worth of contracts from airline carriers. Since the introduction of the cap on business immigration, industries in this sector have increasingly found it difficult to source the right caliber of specialist staff from overseas, the entire industry has left the UK taking many millions of pounds out of the economy. This is just one example of many I could give; UK and industry are losing out globally because of poor business immigration policy and law

Matthew Williams

Immigration Lawyer/Legal Advisor at uComply Ltd

It’s worth remembering that guidance is only guidance and does not expressly give you an ultimate correct answer but guide you to one. In light of the recent case of Alvi v SSHD 2011. Guidance does not have the force of law. So the guidance stating in 5.6 “You can’t sponsor a migrant who you then supply to a third party as labour” appears to me to create a Rule [under immigration act 1974 s3] and ceases to be guidance.

This article does not constitute legal advice only expresses the opinion of the author

As we have updated our website recently the article appears to have been published in 2019. The article and some of its context may have been amended since its original publication pre-2015 and does not describe, express or represent the view of the original author Matthew Williams

The post Umbrella Companies acting as Tier 2 Sponsors? appeared first on uComply.

The question here is, can we now expect all future NHS framework agreements for staffing supply to require this as the norm?

It has been well publicised in the media for a number of years that our borders are too penetrable by illegals, so much so that LSE research commissioned by the government, published at the beginning of last year highlighted that as many as  1 in 20 workers could be illegal.  The government have taken various steps to address this with the introduction of the Points Based System in 2008 and the Immigration Act 2014 encompassing the private rental market.

A lot of emphasis has been placed on enhancing pre-employment checks e.g. reference checking, occupation health, DBS… etc. and this is now an embedded process for many employers. One process however, which has not really moved out of the “dark ages” is right to work checking. Most employers still take a photocopy, say it’s a true likeness, examine the documents provided and then sign and date them. How can one keep up with the ever changing documents and their security features?  Training courses, employ an immigration specialist, outsource to an immigration lawyer or just trust that your staff are good enough to spot an obvious fake?

Technology has caught up and can offer organisations the same level of checking of documentation that is performed when you travel between countries to help ensure that all their employees are legal and the company does not fall foul of making mistakes that can end up costing up to £20,000 in fines per illegal found, possible custodial sentences and reputational damage.

Bringing the long established right to work process into the 21st century using document verification and in some cases, better still, authentication via scanners is a first step to protecting your company. Then you need to ensure the correct Home Office guidance is applied during the employment process. New guidelines were published last month and if you haven’t had a chance to go through these click here to read more.
As immigration is always in the news and it seems successive governments continue to refine rules and guidelines, wouldn’t it be nice to have a solution that combined both scanning and the guidance in one package?

uComply says “welcome to the new age” and why not take a look at what we have to offer

The post National Framework Agreement for Supply of Nursing Staff appeared first on uComply.