M to face job check on UK status

Employment

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Many businesses in the United States hire people on a trial basis. That is, they are hired for a probationary period. This trial period can last from one month to three years, depending on the job. During this time, a person’s performance is carefully evaluated, and at the end of it, the employee receives a review. If the review is favorable, the employee will be given the benefits of other regular full-staff time. If not, the employee is usually told his/her performance did not meet the company expectations, and employment there simply comes to an end. The employee understands right from the beginning that he/she may not be kept on after the probationary period.

However, it is possible for an employee to be fired at any time. The custom is that after the probationary period a person will usually only be fired for cause (unsatisfactory performance, excessive absence or lateness, stealing, etc.) or because the company is not making enough profit to justify keeping all its employees. In such cases, the employee is usually notified a few weeks in advance or is given the equivalent amount in pay. Often the employee is told about his/her dismissal in a conference with the supervisor, but sometimes a company will simply include a “pink slip” along with a paycheck. To get such a “pink slip” means you are fired.

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Two million people each year will face passport or identity checks when they change jobs, under plans unveiled on Monday by the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, to crack down on the employment of illegal immigrants. Employers’ organizations continued to express concern about the checks, which official estimates say will cost business 24 million pounds. Companies will face 5,000 pounds fines if they do not check on new employees.

Immigration welfare groups claimed the scheme marked a shift towards European-style internal immigration controls. “We need to act to deter employers from giving jobs to people from abroad who are here illegally. The fact that these people can get jobs quite easily is one of the main reasons why the United Kingdom is seen as an attractive destination to asylum-seekers,” Mr Howard said.

At the same time, he announced further measures to speed up processing of asylum applications. They included removing the right of people who have come via a “safe third country” such as France or Germany to remain in Britain while they appeal against an asylum refusal. Sentences of up to seven years’ imprisonment are to be made available against racketeers who use deception to get around immigration controls. But it is the new criminal sanctions against companies which employ illegal immigrants – the subject of a fierce battle in Cabinet – which attracted most criticism.

Mr Howard published two consultation documents outlining how the employers’ scheme will work, and the likely costs for Britain’s 1.2 million companies.

The scheme involves companies checking the national insurance numbers of all new staff. But it recognizes that of the 14 million people who change jobs each year, two million do not have a national insurance number. These will have to provide passports, birth certificates or other documents to prove they are here legally.

The Home Office estimates 1.6 million of these are British citizens, a further 200,000 are other European Union citizens and the remaining 200,000 from non-EU countries. Some of the last group will be illegal migrants. The scheme would cost business 13.5 million pounds to set up and 11.5 million pounds a year to run.

The Institute of Directors said it was concerned at the costs, while the Confederation of British Industry remained skeptical. Claude Moraes, director of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said: “This is … a historic shift to a regime of internal immigration controls which is intricate, punitive and will damage race relations.”

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