IN LIGHT of the Windrush scandal the government has been forced to change the rules to ensure workers from other countries can participate in strike action without fear of it impacting on their right to remain.
Up until now, those who are awaiting their ‘right to remain’ from the Home Office are banned from taking part in a strike, and if found to do so can have their ‘right to remain’ denied and are therefore deported.
Tory Home Secretary Sajid Javid announced yesterday that this anti-union rule, which denies those from other countries the fundamental right to strike, has been changed. UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: ‘International staff make a vital contribution to our economy and we are delighted that they can now play a full role at work without fear of reprisal. All workers should be able to join their colleagues in defending their employment rights.
‘Strike action is never taken lightly, but the previous lack of clarity meant migrant workers who needed to take unpaid leave for other reasons could not risk taking part for fear of risking their right to remain in the country.’
Meanwhile, over 400 GPs risk deportation as the NHS is unable to sponsor their visa. NHS England has reached out to GP practices in an urgent bid to find sponsors for 400 international GPs due to complete their training this month. Unless these are matched with GP practices that hold sponsorship licenses, they face having to leave England when their visas expire.
• Labour has called for a total review of the government’s ‘hostile environment’ policy after ministers said part of it had been paused. Data-sharing aimed at identifying ‘illegal immigrants’ has been suspended for three months so people from the Windrush generation were not ‘erroneously impacted’.
Shadow Labour home secretary Diane Abbott said: ‘Unless we review it in detail, the Windrush generation will not be the last end of it in terms of unfairness and cruelty.’ On Wednesday, Home Secretary Sajid Javid revealed that pro-active data sharing between the Home Office and other departments had been paused for people of all nationalities over 30 years old. Doctors, teachers and banks were asked to ‘share information’ on people.
This was part of what has been the ‘hostile environment’ approach which has been blamed for members of the Windrush generation, who are in the UK legally, being wrongly threatened with deportation.
