Workers found 'illegally employed' at Tesco warehouse

Supermarket giant Tesco could reportedly face fines for the illegal employment of foregin students at a warehouse in Croydon, South London.

20 students, believed to be of Indian and Bangladeshi origin, are alleged to have been working as many as 50 hours extra per week than allowed by their visas, which permit 20-hours-a-week maximum.

The UK Border Agency, which carried out an overnight raid on the warehouse, said: "We received information that some staff members were working in the UK illegally at Tesco.com on Factory Lane, Croydon. In response officers carried out an operation in full cooperation with the company shortly after 3am on Saturday, July 21 2012.

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"Twenty individuals have been arrested and now face removal from the UK. The operation was part of an ongoing campaign to tackle visa abuse which has seen over 2,000 offenders removed since the beginning of May.

"The employer now needs to provide evidence that it was carrying out the legally required checks to avoid a fine."

With the fine per illegal employee standing at £10,000, Tesco could face fines of up to £200,000 unless it can prove it carried out all the necessary legal checks.

According to the Daily Mail, a Tesco spokesperson said: "In cooperation with Tesco, the UK Border Agency visited our dot com store in Croydon in July. As a result of this visit, a small number of staff were found to have breached the terms of their working visas.

"We continue to cooperate fully with the UK Border Agency as they look into this issue. We take our responsibilities as an employer very seriously and do not condone illegal working of any kind.

"We have a comprehensive system for ensuring all the correct procedures are followed in this area which has been externally audited and generally works well. We have now taken additional steps to ensure an incident of this nature does not happen again."

Seven of the employees are believed to have been deposted since the raid, while several others are said to still be under investigation.

NR