Tesco fined for employing illegal foreign workers

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UK Border Agency agents in August arrested 20 foreign student workers for alleged breaches of visa conditions following overnight raids at the Tesco.com office in Croydon, south London.

Officials found that the students, who were predominantly of Bangladeshi and Indian origin, had been working up to three-and-a-half times longer than their visas allowed.

After investigating a number of other Tesco employees the UKBA fined Tesco over 23 of its workers.

Investigators found the students had been working between 50 and 70 hours a week during the school term, when their visas only allowed for 20 hours.

Tesco, which employs nearly 300,000 people in more than 2,500 stores in the country, is said to have co-operated fully with the UKBA investigation.

A spokesman for Tesco said: “We are aware of the UK Border Agency’s decision.

“We do not condone illegal working of any kind and have cooperated fully with the UKBA throughout the investigation, taking additional steps to ensure an incident of this nature does not happen again.”

The Standard understands that 20 of the students have now been deported.

A UK Border Agency spokesman said: “This fine shows that we will not hesitate to take action against employers that break the rules. Illegal working has a serious impact on our communities and where we have intelligence to suggest it is taking place we will take action, as we have done in this case.

“It is the legal responsibility of all employers to make sure employees have the right to work in the UK and those who don’t face serious fines. We are always willing to work with employers to make sure they carry out the necessary checks and Tesco has co-operated fully with our investigation.”