Donít turn employers into the immigration police, TUC tells Government

Responding to the Home Secretaryís announcement yesterday about the future of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

Migrant workers have a great deal to offer Britain, and we have a lot to offer them. Better community relations rely on treating migrants fairly by paying them a decent wage for a decent dayís work. That means no under-cutting wages, no excessive hours, no overcrowded accommodation or treating them like modern-day slaves. Migrant workers need the same rights as the rest of us.

The governmentís concern about the number of UK employers who employ undocumented workers shows that bosses at the low end of the labour market know that it is too easy to get away with ignoring employment rights. The best way to meet government concerns is to ensure that workers are not exploited in any workplace and that existing protections are properly enforced. Requiring all employers to police immigration status would simply give good employers more red tape, while giving bad employers more power to exploit migrant workers. What the Government must do is crack down on rogue employers, full-stop.