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You still need to carry out right to work checks for all EU workers before employing them.

Employing workers illegally can result in civil penalties (up to £20,000 per employee) along with the potential for criminal sanctions, so ensuring you have a process in place to establish employees’ right to work is essential.

How you carry out right to work checks will depend on whether you’re carrying out the checks before or after 30th June 2021.

1st January to 30th June 2021

If you’re carrying out a right to work check on or before 30th June 2021, you can still rely on an EU worker’s passport or ID card as a valid right to work in the UK.

You have a duty not to discriminate against EU workers and cannot require them to show whether they have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme during this period.

1st July 2021 onwards

From this date you’ll:

1. no longer be able to accept passports or ID cards as evidence of right to work for EU workers;
2. need proof of immigration status from either the EU Settlement Scheme or the new immigration system.

Immigration status will be recorded electronically and employers can access the online record here. You’ll need the employee’s date of birth and a single-use code (requested by the employee directly) to access the information.

We’re including a comprehensive Brexit FAQs (and additional supporting documents) on our Intelligent Employment platform to guide you through the employment law implications of Brexit. If you don’t already have access to Intelligent Employment, get in touch to find out more.

Over the coming weeks we’ll guide you through the employment law opportunities and challenges posed by Brexit.

In our Brexit series we’ll be covering:

1. Right to work – what checks need to be carried out and what are the risks if they’re not done correctly?
2. Continuing to employ EU workers – how does the settled status scheme work and what happens if an employee’s application is turned down?
3. Supporting employees – what can you do to help and to what extent are you required to do so?
4. UK employment law – what impact is Brexit likely to have?
5. GDPR – what do we know about changes to data protection?

To add further value throughout our Brexit series we’ve created user-friendly, comprehensive FAQs, giving you more of the practical detail you’ll need and want to know. Get in touch to find out more.

With a year like 2020, you’d be forgiven if Brexit has slipped off your agenda. But 2021 is just around the corner and so are the practical implications of Brexit for employment law and your people processes.

To support you with a fast-start to the new year, our free 40-minute webinar will tackle some of the key employment law and people questions raised by the UKs departure from the EU, including:

1. UK employment law – what’s going to change?
2. GDPR – what’s the impact?
3. Right to work – what checks need to be carried out and what are the risks if they’re not done correctly?
4. Continuing to employ EU workers – how does the settled status scheme work and what happens if an employee’s application is turned down?
5. Supporting employees – what can you do to help and to what extent are you required to do so?

When: Wednesday 20 January 2021 / 10am start

Where: Zoom – you’ll receive sign-in details the day before the webinar (19 January 2021)

Click here to register

If you know someone who would also like to attend, just forward this link to them as they’ll need to register separately with their unique details.

This update is accurate on the date it was sent (10 December 2020), but may be subject to change which may or may not be notified to you. This update is not to be taken as advice and you should seek advice if anything contained within affects you or your business.