LONDON, June 1: An Indian care worker who came to the UK “ready, able and willing” to work has won over 28,000 pounds in lost wages and holiday pay after a tribunal found that his sponsoring company failed to provide him with work.
Shabin Shaji, 33, arrived in the country through the Health and Care Worker visa route and had acquired the required certificate of sponsorship from Swan Care Solutions Ltd for a job placement in the healthcare sector.
He told an employment tribunal in Birmingham recently that the sponsor never provided him with work or paid him, which amounted to an unauthorised deduction from wages.
“It is for the claimant (Shaji) to show that there were wages properly payable to him, which were not paid. I have found that the claimant was employed from April 15, 2023 to April 21, 2024. I have found that this was based on a 40-hour working week with a gross salary of 22,880 pounds per annum,” Employment Judge Edmonds concluded.
“During that period, the claimant was ready, willing and able to perform his duties, and the only reason he did not do so was because the respondent did not provide him with work. The respondent withheld work from him, which was an external and involuntary factor preventing him from completing his duties.
“There was therefore an unauthorised deduction from his wages in respect of the full amount of his gross salary during this period. The deduction was not required or authorised by statute, nor by a term of the contract, nor did he agree to the deduction,” the judge noted.
At a hearing last month, the company was also directed to cover the costs of the legal action over and above the unpaid wages, holiday pay and remedy costs. The sponsor informed the tribunal that Shaji’s employment did not commence due to incomplete formalities.
“I have found that the only pre-conditions of employment were that the claimant was in the UK, had a valid visa and was a commutable distance from the workplace. He was in the UK from April 10, 2023 however he was in London initially and it was not until April 14, 2023 that he had accommodation in the Midlands,” the judgment noted.
Shaji, who emigrated from Kerala to Stafford in the West Midlands, was bound by visa restrictions from seeking employment elsewhere in the UK. He eventually managed to secure alternative full-time employment but faced considerable financial hardship until then.
“The claimant had done what needed to be done in order for him to start work. The start date on his certificate of sponsorship had already passed and he was now in the country, with the right permissions, and living in the right location. However, the respondent did not provide him with work, nor did they pay him,” the tribunal noted.
The Work Rights Centre (WRC) charity has been supporting several such cases involving the Health and Care Worker Visa, which was introduced after Brexit to plug shortages in the country’s healthcare sector.
The rules have since been tightened, but WRC fears a sharp decline in migrant professionals raises serious questions about the costs of the government’s “narrow focus” on reducing migration.
“Ministers must look at what workers and public services really need, and go beyond the narrow focus on migrant numbers to design an immigration system that works for the people who actually use it,” said Dr Dora-Olivia Vicol, WRC chief executive.
Under stricter new rules, previously unmonitored care providers in England acting as sponsors for migrants are required to register with industry regulator Care Quality Commission (CQC) – a move the Home Office says is aimed at addressing worker exploitation and abuse within the sector.
Indian nationals have previously topped the visa grants in this category, with many of them left facing the brunt of the previously lax rules governing dubious recruitment agencies. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
