Employers named and shamed over illegal staff

Published on Saturday 11 February 2012 01:06

Employers were fined almost £3 million after hundreds of illegal workers were discovered in just three months last year, new figures have revealed.

The details came as the UK Border Agency (UKBA) named and shamed firms which either failed to pay fines or were served with a second penalty within three years for employing illegal workers.

The UKBA warned that hiring workers illegally “undercuts businesses that operate within the law, undermines British workers, and exploits migrant workers”.

A total of 342 penalties totalling £2.9m were issued after 560 illegal workers were found in the UK between July and September last year, the figures showed.

From today, the UKBA is naming and shaming employers.

Those which either fail to make regular payments or are served with a further penalty within three years will be named on the agency’s website after their appeal rights have been exhausted, the UKBA said.

It comes after the UK government has pledged to cut net migration from the current level of around 250,000 to the tens of thousands last seen in the 1990s by 2015.

In a statement, the agency said: “Illegal working causes damaging social and economic problems for the UK. It undercuts businesses that operate within the law, undermines British workers, and exploits migrant workers.”

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moosef

Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 12:03 PM

I could only speculate that these were small family run businesses. "560 illegal workers were found in the UK" in a population of 60million? "The UKBA warned that hiring workers illegally “undercuts businesses that operate within the law, undermines British workers, and exploits migrant workers”. What rubbish as in the posting below @1. There are no directorships, huge salaries paid and most brits would rather be sucking the gyro than doing the kind of work that these illegals do. They have taken nothing from the spoilt people of the UK, only added service that otherwisae wouldnt exist. SOme of them I can garentee are just family members over on extended holidays. How many brits work abroad illegally? Cape Town is full of them.

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FTH22inarow

Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 08:06 PM

Just imagine if they went after businesses and tax evadersavoiders(same thing morally) with the same vigour they chase the benefits cheats !

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JayTee

Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 07:33 AM

So what tense is UKBA using? Either they have named and shamed these employers, or they will name and shame them "from today" [onward.] Or doesn't the Hootsmon spellchecker know the diffrence between past and future tenses? Now that I've got that off my chest, #1 is wquite right but doesnlt go far enough: disqualify the company principals from being directors (that's future); strip them and their companies of any operating licences they hold, then fine them a multiple of a year's turnover. That should give Mr Osborne somethng to fill the hole in UK finances

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Hector the Lessor

Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 06:03 AM

Quite a few of the business concerned will no doubt be run by emigrants. Given the choice of employing local youngsters or their own kind, albeit illegal immigrants, it would appear natural to go for those guys who conform most with their ideals and culture. Most small businesses in the UK over the last twenty years, well those that were left after the recession in the late 1970s have overenthusiastic employment legislation, government red tape and regulations, council taxes and a negative attitude towards small business compared with unemployed voters. You wonder why you have such a high unemployment in youth nowadays. Take the total number of small businesses, small as in under one hundred employees, allow say a potential of two to three new employees each year for the middle of the range companies, how do the figures stack up with the present level of youth unemployment. The government nor the local councils never learn, they are locked into their own world of political advancement and are sadly lacking in ability to provide a future for all in the population.

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Faceless_bureaucrat

Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 03:44 AM

"Naming and shaming " my a*s , they should be stripping them of their directorship and brought to court for sentencing. 2.9 m in fines means ~£5000 per illegal. So where is the deterrent here ? the employee will make that off the illegal alien anyway, there is no financial penalty at all.

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