Employers Informed Not To Discriminate Among Rush For EU Settled Status
Businesses and public bodies have been warned via the Brexit rights regulator not to discriminate against EU citizens as the new post-Brexit immigration regime enters into force at midnight.
The warnings come as Home Office helplines for EU citizens residing in the UK were said to be “jammed” by a last-minute surge in EU residents applying to stay in the UK by the nighttime deadline. Charity workers assisting applicants stated they were also struggling to get via to the specialist hotline reserved for advisers.
Applicants spoke of making more than one unsuccessful tries to be get through; once connected, they described waits stretching to more than two hours to communicate to a Home Office adviser.
The Independent Monitoring Authority, the statutory body set up to defend EU citizens’ rights after Brexit, issued a reminder to employers to heed the regulation amid reports that some employees were being threatened with the sack or being eliminated from housing waiting lists if they did not know the outcome of their application before 1 July.
With just two minutes to go before the midnight deadline, the Home Office was showing a 44-minute queue, which would be out of time for applications for settled status. A spokesperson stated the Home Office was allowing those in the queue before midnight to proceed with their application if they remained in the online waiting room.
“If EU residents feel that their rights have been, or are possibly to be, breached, they should whinge directly to the public body concerned,” stated Kathryn Chamberlain, chief executive of the IMA.
A pinnacle city regulation firm however has warned that the 59-page right-to-work guidance issued by the government two weeks ago is “so complicated” that life-changing errors could be made innocently by employer and employee. Under the guidance, employers are not required to do “retrospective” checks on EU residents to make sure that they have a right to work after 1 July.