Post
by YorkshireNat » Tue Jan 15, 2013 9:01 pm
Thank you for that reply and the link. Let me explain my reason for the enquiry;
I live in a house of multiple occupancy, there are 7 of us in all and the Spam, bathrooms and toilets are shared. Recently 3 other occupants moved in, one from Hungary, one from Iraq and one from The Gambia. They all work in factories (sweatshops) and other concerns owned directly or indirectly by the same person who is landlord of the property above mentioned.
In a recent development the landlord has installed a washing machine in the Spam which is supposed to be shared by all the tenants and bales of mattress covers arrived that the Hungarian says are to be washed and dried in the house on an industrial scale, turning our shared Spam into an extension of one of the landlord’s “sweatshops”.
I was told on several occasions by several sources that wages paid to employees in those “sweatshops” were below the UK minimum wage.
If what I have been told is true, and I have no reason to suppose otherwise since the sources are in a position to know, then I would find it difficult to believe that if tax and NI were paid by those individuals their salaries would be a matter of record at the DWP and therefore it would be aware of the rate at which those individuals were paid, and that it was below the National Minimum Wage. This is why I believe that those individuals are, if not in the UK illegally, certainly working in the UK illegally.
As I understand the position, the status of the Iraqi and the Gambian is more than a bit iffy, but I’m not sure if the status of the Hungarian is above suspicion either.
You will appreciate that complaining to my landlord would be counter-productive, could even result in me ending up homeless. My next problem is how to put a stop to all this, in my opinion, illegal activity.
Thanks again for your guidance on the questions in my first post and I would appreciate any advice you can offer on my predicament.
