is it legal?

employer charging £190 [wp cost] and another £50 for administration cost from employee to apply WP. is it legal? employer said the the £50 cost him to consult with some experts. pls reply

smiles345 wrote:employer charging £190 [wp cost] and another £50 for administration cost from employee to apply WP. is it legal? employer said the the £50 cost him to consult with some experts. pls reply

I would be happy with paying the £50 as I will be getting my WP done by the employer

whats the alternative for u. would you prefer that the employer decide it is not worth applying for WP in view of the extra costs involved. or would u prefer to pay the small amount especially since they have agreed to apply for the WP. if u create hassles they might withdraw their WP application and leave in in a far worse position. be realistic and pick your battles

many thanx for yr reply. well , i work in the office of this employer. what happned is that the employee got the WP.[there were two employees] employer charged £300 each and got them WP. but, after obtaining WP, they complained to the local MP. they are nurses in the nursing home . then MP refered to the commission of scoial care inspection [CSCI] then they sent a letter asking fro claricfications? we want to know whether its legal. i heard that lot of employer charging money.

well other categories on workers for eg on hsmp / tier 1 visas etc bear their own cost of visas. so unless ur employer has a policy of paying for visas and then charging u ignoring their policies then i am afraid u dont have redress in my opinion.

how ever if u r a health worker, please look up on the net for dept of health 'code of international recruitment' or the 'scottish code for international recruitment of health workers'. this code specifically barrs charging for visa costs etc among many other things. read up the code if u r a health worker as this will apply to you. the same code is also quoted in WHO as the uk govt was lecturing to the whole world on how to do ethical recruitment until recently. just have a read of that document and have a good laugh what they were lecturing to the whole world while violating almost everything mentioned in the same code they wrote and publicised all over the world including WHO. this code might be useful for u to get ur money back if working in public funded organisations after showing the the code of international recuitment of health workers. hope this helps

no. this is a private nursing home. if we know that these people complained , we are going to cancel their WP. but, my question is that legal to charge money?

just have a look at the 'code of international recuitment' and see if it applies to the situation u describe. if they are on a work permit, they have been recuited internationally. the code specifically says that there is no distinction between foreign employees recuited internationally or locally. since these employees are on work permit, it is clear they were only recruited as there was no suitable applicant available in uk or among eu applicants. so i feel they come under the code. as to whether it applies to private health care situation i dont know. please have a look at the code of international recuitment published by the govt and also scottish version as well.

as far as cancelling the work permit goes, i am afraid there are other aspects to be considered. if the employees feel they were victimised after raising legitimate grieviences, i am afraid employment tribunals would be sympathetic to their cause in my opinion. the employer might end up paying a lot more if ordered for costs and damages by employment tribunals, so the employer should be wary of cancelling wp if it is meant to victimise these wp holders for raising legitimate grieviences. remember already the MP is involved, so i am pretty sure they will look into the matter more if they feel these employees were victimised for approaching their MP with their grieviences. tread with extreme caution and take proper legal advice on this issue

there are other factors that might need to be considered.

see link http://www.vbsi.org.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=127 regarding international conventions protecting migrant workers. i dont know how many of them are ratified by uk. look it up and if u find out let me know too . see the section regarding GATS4 mode applicable to foreign workers as this will apply to WP holders in my opinion