Immigration and Employment Law in da mix…
by Philip
It’s not often that immigration law and employment law meet but the case reported here illustrates the possible synergies.
A foreign student was in the UK on a student visa which allowed him to work for up to 20 hours a week.
Could he enforce his statutory rights where he in fact worked more than 20 hours in some weeks or was the contract void for illegality? Further the employer had not checked the employee’s right to work in the UK.
The Claimant brought a claim alleging a failure to pay the NMW (minimum wage). The Tribunal held the contract legal and the Claimant was able to recover the wages owed.
On appeal the President held that the Tribunal’s approach was in error. The end result was that the Claimant could recover for those weeks where he was within his visa (ie where he worked 20 hours or less per week.) Those weeks where he was in breach of his visa he could not recover the NMW.
Above all else this case illustrates that employment law is seldom all or nothing, quite often there are half way houses.
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