The Home Office has confirmed that taking part in legal strike action will no longer jeopardise a sponsored worker’s status in the UK.
We previously covered this issue in February 2018. At that time we had received information from the Home Office that unpaid absences due to strike action would be regarded as a type of absence that could trigger the termination of sponsorship.
The Home Office requires sponsors to monitor absences of sponsored workers and terminate sponsorship if four weeks of unpaid leave has been taken in a calendar year that is not of a type exempted by the Home Office.
We are pleased to confirm that the Home Office has now changed its approach.
New Sponsor Guidance was published in July 2018. This confirms, at paragraph 26.24, that sponsors do not need to terminate sponsorship when a worker has reached four weeks unpaid leave due to one of the exceptions listed in the previous paragraph (i.e. maternity, paternity leave etc.) or ‘where the migrant is taking part in strike action as part of legally organised industrial action’
