Crackdown on illegal working and rogue employers in ‘gig economy’

Companies hiring people in the gig economy will now be legally required to carry out checks confirming that anyone working in their name is eligible to work in the UK, bringing them in line with other employers. These vital checks, which take just minutes to complete, confirm someone’s immigration status and allow them to legally work in the UK.

This means that for the very first time, employment checks will be extended to cover businesses hiring gig economy and zero-hours workers in sectors like construction, food delivery, beauty salons and courier services.

Currently, thousands of companies using these flexible arrangements are not legally required to check the status of these workers. This changes now.

Where businesses fail to carry out these checks, they will face hefty penalties already in place for those hiring illegal workers in traditional roles, including fines of up to £60,000 per worker, business closures, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to 5 years.

Expanding illegal working checks will help level the playing field for the majority of honest companies who do the right thing. For example, Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats already voluntarily carry out checks to ensure their delivery riders are eligible to work.

Clamping down on illegal working forms a critical part of the government’s plan to strengthen the entire immigration system, restoring tough enforcement of the rules and undermine people smugglers using the false promise of jobs for migrants.

The announcement comes a day before the UK holds the first ever Organised Immigration Crime Summit, bringing together over 40 countries to agree unprecedented new international action to take down every aspect of criminal smuggling gangs’ tactics.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: 

Under our Plan for Change, we are restoring order to the asylum and immigration system by introducing tougher laws and bolstering enforcement action to tackle illegal working and stopping rogue employers in their tracks.

Turning a blind eye to illegal working plays into the hands of callous people smugglers trying to sell spaces on flimsy, overcrowded boats with the promise of work and a life in the UK.

These exploitative practices are often an attempt to undercut competitors who are doing the right thing. But we are clear that the rules need to be respected and enforced.

These new laws build on significant efforts to stop organised immigration crime and protect the integrity of our borders, including increasing raids and arrests  for illegal working and getting returns of people who have no right to be here to their highest rate in half a decade.

Claire Pointon, Managing Director, Just Eat UK and Ireland said:

Just Eat is committed to supporting high streets and communities by ensuring a fair and well-regulated rapid delivery sector. Preventing unauthorised work is key to this, which is why we’re strengthening our measures by introducing biometric checks to swiftly remove those without the correct authorisation to work in the UK. We welcome this decision from the Home Office to expand these requirements to other sectors.

A Deliveroo spokesperson said:

Deliveroo has led the industry in taking action to secure our platform against illegal working, developing our approach in close collaboration with the Home Office. We were the first to roll out direct right to work checks, a registration process, daily identity verification and now additional device checks for riders, including substitutes. We take our responsibilities extremely seriously and will continue to strengthen our controls to prevent misuse of our platform. We welcome the government taking action to ensure all businesses and sectors adopt the same standards.

An Uber Eats spokesperson said:

Uber Eats is fully committed to fighting illegal work and the criminal networks who are often behind it, including by introducing state of the art identity and document video verification technology and mandatory substitute registration. We welcome efforts to enable and enforce further controls, and create a level playing field across the sector.