Does your business hire workers on a contract basis? Can Skilled Workers work on a contract basis? Natalia Facco from the Business and Skilled Immigration team explores this topic in the article below.
It is believed by many that Skilled Workers cannot work on a contract basis, however Sponsor Guidance Part 2 (version 14.0) confirms that this is allowed, under certain circumstances.
Work on a contract basis may first of all take place when a Skilled worker is deployed to work for a third-party organisation which is not the sponsor.
In these circumstances, the sponsor must remain in control of all the duties, functions and outcomes or outputs of the job the worker will be doing. If the Home Office suspects that this is not the case, they have the power to request further information to the third-party organisation the worker has been supplied to, and ultimately revoke the sponsor licence.
Crucially, when a Skilled Worker is deployed to fulfil a contractual obligation on behalf of the sponsor, the contract of service between the sponsor and the third-party organisation must contain a specific end date. This is because sponsors are expressly prohibited from contracting workers as labour to undertake routine work or to provide routine services.
If a sponsor is found to provide workers on a routine basis to other organisations, the sponsor licence must be revoked, Guidance explains.
Work on a contract basis can also take the form of an engagement between the sponsor and a self-employed Skilled worker. In this case, the sponsor and the Skilled Worker must enter a genuine contract for the provision of services, which must contain:
- the names and signatures of all parties involved
- the start and end dates of the contract
- details of the job, or piece of work, the worker has been contracted to do
- how much the worker will be paid
If you have any questions about work on a contract basis or you would like any further advice, please get in touch today.