DEALING WITH CANDIDATE IDENTITY CHECKS IN THE MOTOR TRADE

A new candidate who registered with us recently took exception to being asked for proof of his Identity.  He was unwilling to produce documents showing his personal information.  In these days of identity fraud, who can really blame him?  

The Home Office requires all recruitment consultancies to check every candidate at point of registration.  Below are one or two of their requirements (I say one or two advisedly as these are taken from a booklet issued by the Home Office in A4 format 64 pages long!) :    

·         A United Kingdom passport describing the holder as a British citizen or as a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies having the right of abode in the United Kingdom.

·         A Passport containing a certificate of entitlement issued by, or on behalf of, the government of the United Kingdom, certifying that the holder has the right of abode in the United Kingdom.

·         A passport or national identity card, issued by a State which is party to the European Economic Area Agreement, or any other agreement forming part of the Communities Treaties which confers right of entry to or residence in the United Kingdom, which describes the holder as a national of a State which is a party to that Agreement.

·         A United Kingdom Residence Permit issued to a national of a State which is a party to the European Economic Area Agreement, or any other agreement forming part of the Communities Treaties which confirms that the holder has rights of entry to or residence in the United Kingdom.

………….

“Comprehensive guidance for United Kingdom employers on

changes to the law on preventing illegal working”

DOCUMENTS WHICH PROVIDE THE DEFENCE IF PRODUCED ALONE, Home Office April 2004

The Safest form of ID recommended by the Home Office is Passport / National Identity Card. See below:

New Measures To Tackle Illegal Working

 

16 March 2004

Changes to the law will make it easier to prosecute companies who employ illegal workers, the Home Secretary David Blunkett announced today. The change will also make it easier for legitimate business to keep within the law.

New guidance will be issued to employers to make clear what documents they are required to see as proof of entitlement to work. A number of documents which have been exploited by forgers will no longer provide a defence against prosecution for illegal employment. The Government is also considering whether to increase the penalty for employing illegal workers to act as a deterrent.

The new regulations, which will come into force on 1 May, are part of a comprehensive, cross-Government approach to tackling illegal working. This includes strengthened border controls to prevent illegal immigration, increased enforcement activity and action to tackle the organised criminal networks, who traffick illegal workers to the UK.

But the same Home Office website, highlights another issue: IDENTITY THEFT

          Protecting yourself   

Criminals commit identity theft by stealing your personal information. This is often done by taking documents from your rubbish or by making contact with you and pretending to be from a legitimate organisation.

Identity theft can result in fraud affecting your personal financial circumstances, as well as costing government and financial services millions of pounds a year. If your identity is stolen, you may have difficulty getting loans, credit cards or a mortgage until the matter is sorted out.

Chris Eastwood Automotive Ltd are REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation) registered and pull out all the stops to comply with their code of conduct.  It makes good business sense.  But when you operate, as we do, across the UK and overseas, and register many candidates on a daily basis, only a portion of whom you can hope to place, inviting every one of them along for a face to face interview when they register is not financially practical.  The extra staffing cost if we did would fall on the shoulders of our clients.

REC’s originally recommended course when collecting ID from candidates interviewed remotely, as set down by the DTI was that we request new candidates to provide passport information verified by a qualified professional etc etc (in the same manner as when you apply for a passport) and send by email or post.  How ludicrous an idea would that be for a Recruitment Consultancy, relying on registrations, to put each and every candidate through a regime like that before they could be considered registered!  We took it up with the REC and reminded them that we were in business to provide employment opportunities to candidates and not to restrict them!  REC – in turn - took it up with the DTI and they agreed with us!  We therefore got the rules changed and now they will accept copy passports without the need for professional verification.

But of course, we can do nothing to change the law surrounding Identity checks and they must be performed.  Our plc clients expect nothing less from us.

The candidate who balked at supplying proof of identity presented us with another problem.  He pointed out that it was quite obvious from his CV that he had lived the whole of his life in the UK! Oh dear!

Bear with me, but this takes us back to the Home Office again, and the Home Office booklet mentioned previously:

Avoiding racial discrimination while complying with Section 8

 

The population of the United Kingdom contains a range of ethnic groups; an individual’s race, ethnicity or religion is no indication of their right to work here. It is important that your recruitment practices do not discriminate against any person on the basis of their racial background.

“Comprehensive guidance for United Kingdom employers on changes to the law on preventing illegal working” Introduction, Home Office April 2004

Can those of us who operate in the recruitment industry really expect our candidates to understand the constraints that we operate under and that can significantly impact on our business?  Of course not.  Why should any individual who is looking for a job be aware that the Home Office is using the recruitment consultancies as a starting point for identifying and restricting illegal workers.  The scandal surrounding the cockle pickers who met their deaths so tragically at Morecambe Bay and the activities of their gang masters highlights the problem.

One overriding reason the candidate gave for his reluctance in providing proof of identity was,  “I’ve registered with lots of agencies and no one has asked me before!”

<< Articles