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National minimum wage is still an issue

While the majority of our clients are aware of National Minimum Wage (NMW), many are still being paid below NMW. The problem is not limited to informal sectors and micro enterprises. For example, one of the clients who was paid below NMW was working ‘cash in hand’ in a local post office.

Many Eastern European nationals are being offered hourly rate below NMW. They are very likely to accept it if they feel they won’t be able to secure any other job. One client was told to ‘f..k off to work next door where she will be paid even less’.

In other cases the hourly rate offered meets NMW criteria. However, individuals are asked to work overtime for which they are not paid or not able to take time off in lieu. Consequently, they are paid well below NMW.

Problems with NMW are frequent in small businesses, for example corner shops, as well in agencies as underpaying employees is one of the tools that businesses use to reduce cost of their products or services in order to be more competitive. In short, for some, exploiting employees by not paying them NMW, it’s a business model.

According to information from HMRC, it takes up to 2 years to investigate one case of NMW and an individual making a complaint has to disclose all personal details, otherwise the case is not treated as a priority. Moreover, because in many Eastern European countries working in breach of employment regulations is seen as an illegal act on behalf of employer and employee alike, people are afraid of being punished if they identify themselves fully to HMRC which means even less workers are likely to refer to this instrument and a low number of cases are taken up by the service.

Our client U worked in a restaurant where all staff were paid below  (NMW). She hardly ever got her payslips. The employer sometimes paid her by cheque and sometimes ‘cash in hand’. U and her colleague approached us asking for support as they reported their employer to HMRC few months ago but believed that no action was taken.

According to the contract, U worked not in the restaurant but for an agency that did not exist (her real employer, the owner of the restaurant, made up the name and other details of that agency).

We helped U to write a letter to her former employer requesting unpaid wages but the employer ignored the correspondence. Consequently, we supported her to make an Early Conciliation notification to ACAS.

With our help, U recovered all the money she was owned.

Challenging unscrupulous employers delivers justice to vulnerable workers but it also empowers them to protect their rights in the future. And this is our mission here at EERC.

Support us! Donate £1 and help us to continue our work: text EERC01 for £1 donation to 70070.

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Race or ethnicity? Hate crime against Eastern Europeans in London.

Last week, we talked at the Hate Crime conference in Brent, part of the Hate Crime awareness week. It was a great and interesting meeting, and we are grateful to have been part of it. It gave us the opportunity to think once again on how to tackle hate crime against the Eastern European community.

Eastern Europeans in Brent are a newly arrived community, with numbers having increased considerably in the last few years. The main two ethnicities are Poles and Romanians. As every newly arrived community, they have little in terms of presence and in the sense of belonging.

Taking into consideration that since the EU accession years – 2004 and 2007 – overall numbers of Eastern Europeans increased rapidly across all London boroughs and across the UK in general, this phenomenon was met with backlash from the popular media. Eastern Europeans were, and still are, portrayed as invaders from poor countries, often lacking skills and education but overall decent workers. This also created social tensions in local communities.

Because many of Eastern Europeans came to the UK with the intention of building their lives here with very little in their pockets, they were (and often still are) willing to take any job that provides an income. It created the spiral of exploitation and abuse, with many of our users telling us that it was ‘a migration deal’: “we are allowed to come over but we don’t deserve equal treatment.”

This phenomenon has been amplified by poor or lack of provision of any services that encourage integration of newly arrived communities, such as affordable English classes or career guidance appropriate for workers with different educational backgrounds. People often felt used as cheap labour, ostracised, being second class citizens. The longer the route to integration, the less confident and more anxious our communities become. In addition, the way of talking about our communities as a ‘problem’ (as in ‘we have problem with Poles in my council’) aggravate the sense of hostility and not being wanted. It undermines any reasonable intents of integration.

The Brexit referendum opened this wound up. Casual racism and xenophobia became explicit incidents, common in the most important areas close to a victim: at work, in school, in the neighbourhood. Eastern Europeans have been told they wouldn’t be paid and told to ‘f*** off to Poland’. Wages are being withheld and access to training and progression limited or cut off. In the words of one worker, ‘ships in Dover are waiting’.

Because racist or xenophobic behaviours towards Eastern Europeans have been so massively naturalised in these communities, it’s not a surprise that supporting victims to detect hate crime, articulate the nature of an incident and report to the police or other relevant body has been a real challenge for us.

But it has to be done. If our local communities are to live in harmony and understanding, Eastern Europeans need to be recognised as full members of local communities, therefore we need to work on eradicating hate crime and hate speech, and increase efforts to help newly arrived communities to integrate to British markets (labour, housing, education & schooling, health) as well as to help them to find a sense of belonging.

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Stop changes to NHS up-front charging!

We call all Eastern Europeans, our supporters and all members of the general public to sign in the petition to stop changes to the way how NHS charges for health services. To add your name to the list of signatories before the 2nd of October 2017 please go here. Do not wait – it is in your interest.

The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt, MP, Secretary of State for Health lays before the Parliament the changes to the way how NHS charges people with no right to free health services. We believe that many of Eastern Europeans can be adversely affected by these changes.

What do these changes mean?

Changes mean that the NHS will apply up-front charges to everyone who may be not eligible for free NHS treatments. GP and A&E services would stay free for everyone. We believe that there is a significant group of people who would suffer from these changes. Among them are disadvantaged and vulnerable people, such as older people, mental health sufferers, people fleeing domestic violence and modern slavery, and those who are excluded and exploited.

A patient approaching a NHS service will have to evidence that they have right to use services without cost. It means, for example, presenting residency documents, visas, proof of living and working in the UK and so on.

We believe that there are other, more efficient ways of ensuring that patients have or don’t have a right to the free NHS services. We, as well as many of our friends in other charities, civic organisations and members of the general public, would be happy to consult with the government on how to enable fair access to the free NHS services. We don’t think that up-front charging is the right approach.

There is a number of issues with this approach.

Firstly, some non-British citizens may have problems evidencing their right to free NHS service. Among those may be older people, the homeless, people with mental health issues and learning disabilities, young migrants and refugees, victims of human trafficking, and others who experience disadvantage or vulnerability.

For example, a Polish woman who is fleeing domestic violence may feel she is not eligible for the free health service because for the last few years she has been a stay-at-home mum supported by her partner, so now her right to reside can be challenged. It shouldn’t matter but she doesn’t know the law well and fears that whatever she does, she would be charged. She may have left all her documents at the premises she fled from so she can’t even evidence that she is an EU national. If she suffered physical and mental traumas as a result of domestic violence, she needs to access specialist services.

Secondly, we believe that not every non-British citizen living in the UK would know what paperwork is necessary to prove the right to free health service. It may mean that many of them would voluntarily pull out of the health system. It’s not potentially dangerous only for them but also for all of us.

For example, a Lithuanian man who suffers from TB may have doubts if he is eligible for the free service and to avoid high up-front charges he may choose not to go to the specialist service. TB is a highly infectious disease. TB sufferers who are not treated spread the disease to all of us.

Thirdly, we believe that the pressure put on the NHS personnel would adversely affect the services’ capacity to provide treatments and care needed. The NHS staff will, in effect, be required to conduct immigration checks on potential patients. To avoid unintended racial profiling (i.e. making judgements about person’s nationality and race based on superficial indicators, like the colour of skin, an accent or sounding of the name) NHS people would have to check everyone. Time and effort consumed by this exercise should be spend in providing high-quality services to patients. There is a risk it would cause additional queuing and delays.

For example, a Slovak man has been residing in the UK for the last 12 years. Because his name indicate an origin other than British and he may speak with feint Slovak accent, the NHS staff may be poised to control his immigration status to establish if he needs to be charged up-front or not. As he is an EU national, he doesn’t have a visa or other immigration document (he doesn’t need to) so he needs to present a portfolio of documents proving his work and residence. Regardless of how well trained the NHS person dealing with him is, the process would take at least half an hour to an hour. If he has a patchy employment history, for example a bit of employment and a bit of self-employment, and he moved house a lot, this process can take two or more hours. This is time that could have been spent on supporting other patients.

We have faith that there are other ways of ensuring that the free NHS services are accessed only by those people who have a right to do so. But up-front charging is not one of them. Please sign the petition here – let’s work with the government to find a better way.

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What is bogus self-employment?

Part of our mission here at Eastern European Resource Centre is to make people aware of their rights at work, to make sure that our clients are in legal employment and that they are not being exploited at work.

Many of the most disadvantaged Eastern Europeans are unaware of the difference between self employed or employed status and many unscrupulous employers take advantage of this, resulting in many people being forced to become self-employed to keep their jobs.

Bogus self-employment is a situation when a person who should have an employee status is asked by employer to register as self-employed.

One of our clients was offered a job in one of the Polish shops in East London, but to her surprise instead of an employment contract she was asked to sign ‘Agreement of Supply of Contract Services’. The contract said that as the ‘seller’ she will charge the ‘buyer’ (the shop) ‘the price for the service £7.50 per hour’. She was also told that she has to register as self-employed if she wants to work.

Another client working in a trendy fashion boutique in West London was told that if she wants to keep her job she has to register as self-employed as her employer won’t be able to pay her national insurance contributions any longer.

In both cases it is bogus self-employment.

You should seek advice if you are in a similar situation, as false self-employment means that your employer won’t have to pay you National Minimum Wage, sick pay, holiday pay or maternity pay.

At the moment only Employment Tribunal can confirm your status as employee if e.g.:

  • you are required to work regularly unless you are on leave and you are paid hourly rate
  • you’re required to do a minimum number of hours
  • your manager decides when and how you work and you can’t send someone else to do your work
  • your employer provides the materials and equipment for your work.

Are you unsure of your status or have any questions about your rights at work? Call us at: 020 8741 1288

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Eastern Europeans’ Rights in the UK: what has changed? What might change after Brexit?

To first answer the question, nothing has changed yet! And nothing will change for EU citizens’ status until the UK actually leaves the EU (which might be on 29th of  March, 2019). People from EU still enjoy the same rights to work and reside here as they did in the past.

On Monday the 26th of June, the UK has put forward it’s proposal for the future rights of EU citizens in the UK after Brexit. This is just a proposal for the time being, it will be subject to negotiations between the UK and EU as part of the exiting the EU.  The UK proposal may change, either becoming more generous as part of the negotiation or being withdrawn partially or in full if the negotiations fail.

What is the UK government proposing? 

The newly proposed immigration status will allow those who have been resident in the UK for more than 5 years to apply for settled status, which is the equivalent of Indefinite Leave to Remain. This will give them access to healthcare, education and benefits as has been the case in the past.

Those who have been here for less than 5 years will have the opportunity to complete their 5 year period and then apply for settled status.

Those people who will come to the UK after a specific date who has not been announced yet ( it might be between 29 March 2017 and 29th March 2019), will no longer be able to get settled status after 5 years, but they might be able to come and settle under future immigration rules.

What do you need to do now?

This policy is not law yet, but subject to negotiations with the EU, we don’t know yet what the final deal on immigration will look like. However, this is the first indication of how post-Brexit immigration controls could work for EU citizens.

Although you cannot apply for settled status at the moment, there are some actions we would recommend.

According to the government, there is no need to act yet, but if you already have at least 5 years of legal residency in the UK and can apply for Permanent residency card, we recommend you to do so. Why?

The Home Office stated that people with Permanent Residency documents will still have to apply for settled status after Brexit. Although it may mean making two applications, continuing to apply for a permanent residency certificate is the only certain way to guarantee your rights to live and work in the UK right now.

Moreover, this card is still the only way for EU citizens to apply for British citizenship, for the time being. In short, if you apply for PR now, then you have time to apply for British Citizenship before Brexit actually happens.

Have any questions, or need an immigration advisor? Call us at: 020 8741 1288

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One year after the referendum. Where are we now?

Exactly one year ago Britain had one of the most important votes in it’s history, the Brexit referendum. As the results started to come in, divided reactions portrayed a divided country.

Immediately after the results, we observed a significant rise in hate crime against Eastern European nationals, Polish people in particular. Although there haven’t been any major incidents such as the one in August 2016 when a Polish national was murdered in Essex,  we often receive phone calls from people who experienced hate crime, just because they were Eastern European. Thankfully, we haven’t seen another spike in hate crime after the triggering of the article 50, as we expected. Things look like they have settled down a bit, people have gotten used to the idea.

However, we are aware that members from our communities are still experimenting hate crime. We have just finished a pilot project of 6 months – “Eastern European Hate Crime Advocates”  a project made in partnership with Home Office and Metropolitan Police – a hate crime helpline dedicated to Polish nationals, and at the moment we are working towards becoming a 3rd party reporting site for hate crime. In the last half a year we conducted a series of events and worked closely with the Police to educate  the public on why it’s important to report a hate crime and advise the Police forces how to deal with Eastern Europeans who might report such a crime. Although this project is officially over, we will still continue to raise awareness on this matter and support Eastern European citizens who were victims of hate crime.

As part of our project we conducted a survey in which 175 EE nationals from all walks of life took part. We were interested to see what are the concerns of EE nationals living here regarding Brexit, how many people have experienced hate crime, if people are thinking about living the UK and so on. One year after the referendum and on the day that the UK government have made their first step in protecting the rights of EU citizens living here, we believe that our findings are eloquent on how this last year was for our communities and of things to come.

When asked about what concerns people most after Brexit, our respondents replied that their immigration status is their main issue.

This particular problem has been the matter of intense debates in the last year, in the press and civil society here, and on the continent. As we mentioned before, we welcome the start of the Brexit negotiations and are looking forward to hear more details on the PM’s proposal on EU citizens rights made last evening.

People’s right to work and the state of the economy were also important concerns, and rightly so, as we saw the pound drop considerably in the last year.

In the months immediately after the referendum, we did intensive physical outreach in Polish and Romanian communities trying to find out if people are considering leaving the UK, and we did get a sense of people seriously considering such an important life change, especially in the more established migrant communities. Our survey also signalled that people are considering leaving the UK.

Over 56% of our respondents have been thinking of moving or have decided to move to another EU country or back home. Moreover, people are well aware that this could affect their life in many ways, and there are many uncertainties regarding pensions, NI contributions and so on, if they decide to leave the UK. Hopefully, these aspects will be soon clarified in the negotiations:

Not only that people are considering leaving the UK, but the numbers of people coming here from Eastern Europe is dropping, as we see from the latest Migration Observatory, Oxford University study saying that the number of people moving to Britain from Eastern Europe has fallen by around a third since the Brexit vote, and Migration observatory believes that this may be linked to the strength of the currency and the lack of clarity about long-term rights of residence.

Are these the same reasons that make people already here consider leaving? Perhaps. Our survey also showed that over 80% of our respondents feel anxious about the future or that their lives are worse off or will be worse after Brexit:

Regarding hate crime and the general attitude toward migrants in the UK, almost 70% of our respondents have felt unwelcome or know somebody who has:

Moreover, 51% of our respondents state that they have experienced hate crime at work or in their personal life, or something similar to hate crime, or that they know people who have experienced it.

We fully appreciate that this has been a hard year for everybody, but at the same time we sense a movement forward has been taken with the start of the negotiations.

We feel that the next few months will be crucial for Eastern Europeans in deciding if they stay or go somewhere else. We strongly believe that the business environment and the state of the economy are the most important factors to take into consideration for the working people from Eastern Europe who have decided to make Britain their home.

There is much at stake for EE migrants and their families therefore, us, at the East European Resource Centre are working hard to support Eastern European nationals through Brexit. Our main focus at the moment is immigration support and we do have regular free events for our communities regarding permanent residency and citizenship. If you’d like to support our work, consider donating here. If you have questions about immigration issues or require an immigration advisor, please call us at: 020 8741 1288.

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Are you seeking immigration advice? Know about the risks of using illegal immigration advisors!

Since the Brexit vote, there has been a surge in the number of permanent residency applications for EU citizens.

We have definitely noticed a greater interest among Eastern Europeans in confirming their status in the UK. Although it hasn’t been confirmed whether it will be useful to possess the permanent residence card when the UK does eventually leave the EU, we do encourage people who are eligible, to do so.

Who is eligible?

EU citizens who have been living in the UK for the past 5 years, exercising their treaty rights, that means they have been engaging in one or more of:

+ work

+ self employment

+ self sufficiency

+ study

Although there is much more to say about eligibility and the evidence needed to prove that one is eligible, we want to draw attention to a surge in illegal immigration advice within our communities.

First of all, we want to state that if you chose to seek immigration advice and support in order to apply for the permanent residency card or British Citizenship, you should check if they are registered with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner. In the UK, only OISC registered immigration advisers (or solicitors, barristers and members of approved professional bodies) are legally able to provide immigration and asylum advice and services to the public. 

If they are not registered with OISC, they might have little or no knowledge of immigration law, and this might damage your permanent residency application and immigration status permanently. All the applications ever made to the Home Office, remain in their data base and when one makes a new one, the old applications are taken into consideration.

An unregulated immigration advisor cannot be held to account by the OISC or any other regulator for their actions, or any money you have paid to them, therefore we urge the members of our communities to please be careful when they give their money away.

A real immigration advisor should not claim to be able to influence or predetermine the outcome of your application, or arrange for your application to receive priority processing, instead they should be honest with you about your chances for a successful application.

Your accountant, unless registered with OISC, is not a legal immigration advisor. Your friends, although they might mean well, shouldn’t advise you on immigration matters either. If you are unsure about your Permanent Residency application and eligibility, is better that you don’t apply for the time being. Until UK actually leaves the EU, which is not going to be before March 2019, EU citizen’s status remains the same!  Don’t listen to rumours circulating in the community, call us if you have any questions: Free Advice Line 0800 121 4226. 

We deliver many free events on permanent residency and naturalisation in specific languages, please follow us on social media to find out more: Facebook and Twitter.

If you need immigration advice, please seek an advisor regulated by the OISC, or a regulated solicitor or barrister. East European Resource Centre is registered with the Office of Immigration Services’ Commissioner – level 1.

If you want to report an illegal immigration advisor or complain about one, please email info@oisc.gov.uk.