Businesses increasingly look to protect their investment in sponsored workers with “clawback” agreements, seeking to recoup immigration fees from the employee if employment terminates. With sponsorship on the rise post-Brexit, businesses are asking questions about how to create an effective clawback agreement.

This article explores the key considerations and risks involved in these arrangements.

Employers support employees with the high cost of visa sponsorship

The average cost of sponsoring a Skilled Worker for five years can exceed 10,000. Most of the fees incurred are government fees including a visa application fee, a fee to assign a Certificate of Sponsorship, an Immigration Skills Charge, an Immigration Health Surcharge, a fee for attending an appointment, a priority processing fee and so on.

In most cases, the majority of these costs are borne by the employer. Sponsoring an employee therefore entails a significant up-front investment. As a result, some businesses are hesitant to offer jobs to candidates who require sponsorship, instead preferring to recruit from the settled labour market. Such a policy is supported by the government in their promotional material for employers, which explicitly wants to “encourage employers to first consider domestic recruitment options within the UK”. However, it potentially poses the risk of a spurned candidate bringing an employment tribunal claim for race discrimination claim in an employment tribunal (explored further in our...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMia2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lmxld2lzc2lsa2luLmNv...