Why Right to Work Matters in Recruitment

In the UK, employers face civil penalties of up to £60,000 per illegal worker for failing to conduct compliant right to work checks, and criminal prosecution with unlimited fines and up to five years in prison for knowingly employing someone without the right to work. In the US, Form I-9 violations carry civil fines ranging from $272 to over $27,000 per violation depending on severity and intent. These are not theoretical risks: Home Office enforcement visits to staffing agencies increased significantly in the years following Brexit, when the volume of European workers requiring status checks for the first time created widespread compliance confusion and a genuine increase in non-compliant placements.

For staffing agencies supplying workers to client sites, right to work compliance is doubly important. The agency is the employer of record for the worker in most supply arrangements, which means the legal obligation to check sits with the agency, not the client. If a worker placed by an agency is found to be working without the legal right to do so, the agency carries the penalty exposure regardless of whether the client was aware. That is the risk profile that makes right to work a board-level compliance concern for any agency with significant volume.

How Right to Work Works

In the UK, right to work checks must be conducted before employment begins. The employer must obtain original documents from the worker, verify that they are genuine and belong to the holder, make a clear copy, and retain it for the duration of employment plus two years. Documents fall into two lists: List A documents, such as a UK passport or biometric residence permit with no time limit, establish a permanent right to work with no expiry follow-up required. List B documents establish a time-limited right to work, and the employer must conduct a follow-up check before the expiry date to maintain the statutory excuse against penalty.

Since 2022, the UK has introduced a digital right to work check route for British and Irish citizens using the Identity Document Validation Technology (IDVT) scheme, provided the check is conducted through a government-certified identity service provider. For workers with a share code from the Home Office online service, including those with settled or pre-settled status, the check is conducted online rather than via physical documents. Agencies need clear internal processes distinguishing all three routes: manual document check, online share code verification, and certified IDVT check, because the statutory excuse against penalty depends on using the correct route for each worker type.

In the US, Form I-9 must be completed for all employees within three business days of their start date. Section 1 is completed by the employee themselves; Section 2 is completed by the employer after reviewing original identity and work authorisation documents. E-Verify is mandatory for federal contractors and in several states, and widely used by staffing agencies to reduce I-9 liability and demonstrate proactive compliance during audits.

Right to Work in Practice

A staffing agency places 40 warehouse operatives for a distribution centre over a two-week ramp-up period. The compliance manager creates a pre-start checklist requiring each worker's right to work check to be completed and filed before their first shift. For 28 workers holding UK passports, the check is conducted via the agency's IDVT-certified provider. Eight workers use share codes, verified online with timestamps retained. Four hold biometric residence permits, verified manually with copies in the worker file. When the client's audit team requests compliance evidence six weeks later, the agency provides the full file within 24 hours. That level of documentation turns right to work compliance from a liability into a differentiator in competitive tenders.