Oddly enough, the Australians, although they are “just like us”, are actually one of the few nationalities we come across regularly which are NOT entitled automatically to work here.

So for starters, ask to see their passport, which is where any valid visa will be. Many Australians come over on a working holiday visa, which means that they can be here for two years, but only work for a total of 12 months. If this is the visa they have, you then need to know how many of the 12 months they have already worked.

The most urgent next question is “Is it worth employing them for such a short time?” And if you do employ them and they work out well, are you willing to help them with the visa application process?

When you employ any non-UK citizen you should photocopy their passport or photo-id in order to protect yourself in the future. You aren’t expected to identify a fake ID/passport, but you should spot any obvious discrepancies (e.g. date of birth).

When you take a photocopy you protect yourself from a huge fine – £10,000 for unwittingly employing illegal aliens – and all you need to avoid this fine is to take good photocopies of genuine-looking documents. Lady Scotland didn’t do this and really should have paid the maximum fine, but even if you “only” have to pay £5,000 like she did – wouldn’t you rather spend the money on something else??!!

And for UK citizens – make it standard procedure to take copies of everyone’s passport or ID, so that no-one can claim that they are being discriminated against. For your British workers the documents prove that they are who they say they are, preventing identity fraud. Any staff who object to that really do need to be investigated properly!

“We receive a much better service than we did from the generic legal advice lines we used in the past.” Amicitia

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Contract – Employment Contract

Legally, since 1 April 2020, you have to give all new employees a contract on their first working day.

On a purely practical level, it ensures that they know what is expected of them, i.e. their hours of work. They also know what they are entitled to, i.e. holidays, any sick pay, etc. This frees them up to concentrate on doing the actual work you hired them for!

If you don’t give them a written contract, then the statutory rules apply. These rules are to protect the employee not the employer. Therefore you may not be in the best position to do what has to be done if you rely on an verbal contract. This applies to handbooks and policies as well. In your disciplinary policy you need to say that you won’t follow the ACAS guidelines if someone has been with you for less than two years. If you don’t have this written down (and have given it to the employee) then you have to follow the guidelines – what a hassle!

A recent case was about an employee who only had an “verbal” employment contract. The employer had to pay her for all her unused holiday for the whole of her employment. Normally if you don’t use it, you lose it. However because the Tribunal felt that the employee hadn’t known what would happen to her holiday if she didn’t use it – she had nothing in writing telling her this – ignorance was bliss in this case. The employer had to pay out 131.5 days holiday to her.

On top of all this, if an employee brings a claim against you and is successful at tribunal, you may have to pay them more money because you haven’t given them a written contract.

The extra money they could be given will usually be three or four weeks’ pay. To lessen the amount, make sure you give them a written employment contract.

And make sure you let staff know, in writing, of any changes to their working conditions four weeks before you change them!

“Gap HR gives me peace of mind. They are quick to pass on relevant information even for things I hadn’t even thought about and are relevant to my business – including extra bank holidays and staff retirement issues. Working with Gap HR takes away the worry, allowing me to get on with running my business, knowing that my staff are well looked after. “Appletree Marketing

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