illegal workers, USA News (London): Small boat migrants and other individuals working in Britain illegally will be granted powers to sue their bosses under Labour’s new employment laws, new guidance has warned. Angela Rayner’s Employment Rights Act, which came into effect on Friday, will open businesses and employers to new claims regardless of an employee’s immigration status, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said.
The Housing Secretary hailed her bill as laying the foundations for a high-growth, high-skill economy and insisted that the legislation is good for both workers and business. Within the EHRC’s updated direction, it explicitly addresses scenarios involving workers without valid permits. It confirms that employment tribunals can hear cases regardless of whether employment contracts are legal.
New Legal Thresholds and Harassment Claims
Under the new legislation, employers must now demonstrate they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent harassment, representing a higher threshold than the previous requirement of simply taking reasonable steps. The EHRC illustrates this strengthened standard with a specific scenario involving an illegal migrant. Its guidance describes a woman without a work permit who faces harassment from a colleague, noting that although her employment contract is unlawful, this does not prevent her claim from proceeding.
The watchdog reasoned that the harassing behaviour was not contingent on the employment relationship itself. The guidance makes clear that an illegal contract will not ordinarily block a worker from bringing a harassment claim under the new framework. Beyond individual harassment claims, the legislation also exposes businesses to liability when staff are mistreated by third parties such as customers, freelance workers or self-employed contractors.
Tribunal Risks and Political Reaction
Companies that fail to meet the heightened all reasonable steps threshold risk being hauled before employment tribunals and ordered to pay uncapped compensation. These protections extend across all characteristics covered by equality law, encompassing age, disability, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and gender reassignment.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp blasted the new stipulations as farcical. A Government spokesman noted that this is not a new right created by the Employment Rights Act, stating that the law already protects people from unlawful workplace harassment, with individual claims determined by independent courts and tribunals according to each case’s circumstances.
