Your Rights as a Migrant Worker in the UK — What Your Employer Cannot Do to You

I want to start this article with something that might surprise you.

Holding a Skilled Worker Visa in the UK does not make you a lesser employee. You have the same core employment rights as a British citizen. Your employer cannot pay you less than the minimum wage because you are foreign. They cannot take your passport. They cannot threaten to "cancel your visa" every time you raise a concern. They cannot make you work 70-hour weeks without overtime pay and tell you it is a condition of your sponsorship.

All of those things are illegal. Some of them are serious criminal offences.

And yet — I hear these stories regularly. Not because migrant workers don't know their rights, but because nobody sat them down and explained those rights in plain language before they signed a contract. This article is that conversation.

The rights you have regardless of visa status

These rights apply to you from your first day of employment in the UK, regardless of your nationality or visa type:

National Minimum Wage — In 2025, this is £11.44 per hour for workers aged 21 and over. Your employer cannot pay you less than this. Not for any reason. Not as a "trial period." Not because your visa is tied to them. Not ever.

Working Time Regulations — You cannot be required to work more than 48 hours per week on average (over a 17-week reference period) unless you voluntarily sign an opt-out agreement. You are entitled to rest breaks during the working day and minimum rest periods between shifts.

Holiday entitlement — You are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday per year (28 days for a full-time worker). This is a legal right, not a perk your employer can withhold.

Protection from discrimination — The Equality Act 2010 protects you from discrimination based on race, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, and other protected characteristics. Being treated worse than colleagues because you are African, Zimbabwean, or foreign is unlawful.

Right to a payslip — You must receive a payslip on or before every payday. It must show your gross pay, deductions, and net pay. If you are not receiving payslips, this is a legal violation.

Sick pay — If you are too ill to work, you are entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) of £116.75 per week (2025 rate) for up to 28 weeks, provided you earn above the Lower Earnings Limit and have been off sick for more than 3 consecutive days.

What your employer absolutely cannot do

1. Confiscate or hold your passport

This is one of the most common forms of exploitation reported by migrant workers — and it is a serious criminal offence under the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Your passport belongs to you. It is your legal identity document. No employer, agency, landlord, or anyone else has any legal right to take it, hold it "for safekeeping," or refuse to return it on demand.

If an employer is currently holding your passport, you have every right to demand it back — in writing, by email. If they refuse, this is a criminal matter. Contact the Modern Slavery Helpline or the police.

2. Threaten to "cancel your visa" as a management tool

This one is so common it has almost become normalised in some workplaces. It is not normalised. It is a form of coercion.

Here is what is actually true about visa cancellation:

Your employer can withdraw their sponsorship of you, which would mean you need to find a new sponsor or leave the UK within 60 days. This is a real consequence, which is why the threat has power.

However, your employer cannot cancel your visa unilaterally as an immediate punishment. The Home Office process involves notifications and appeal rights. And crucially — withdrawing sponsorship in retaliation for you asserting your legal employment rights may itself be unlawful.

If an employer is using sponsorship threats to stop you raising a grievance, taking sick leave, or asserting your pay rights — document everything in writing.

3. Pay you below the minimum wage or the salary on your Certificate of Sponsorship

Your Skilled Worker Visa has a minimum salary requirement — and your Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) states a specific salary. Your employer is legally obligated to pay you at least that amount.

If they are paying you less — whether by deducting "training fees," charging you for accommodation at inflated rates, or simply underpaying you — this is a breach of both employment law and sponsor licence obligations.

Employers who underpay sponsored workers risk losing their sponsor licence. This is leverage you have, not just them.

4. Make you work in a different role than your CoS states

Your Skilled Worker Visa ties you to a specific job role and employer. But this protection works both ways. Your employer cannot move you to a significantly different role without updating your sponsorship. If you were hired as a nurse and they are now expecting you to do administrative work full-time, or hired as an IT engineer and you are doing warehouse shifts — this may be a sponsorship violation on their part.

5. Charge you for training or equipment

Some unscrupulous employers — particularly in healthcare, construction, and logistics — have been known to deduct costs for mandatory training, uniforms, or equipment from workers' wages. This is illegal if it brings your pay below the minimum wage, and specific types of deductions (like training costs that you must repay if you leave within a certain period) are restricted by law.

Case study: Blessing's story

Blessing came to the UK from Nigeria on a Skilled Worker Visa to work as a senior care worker in a residential home in the West Midlands. Within three months, her experience had become a textbook case of exploitation.

Her employer was making deductions from her salary for "accommodation" (she did not live at the care home), "training fees," and "uniform costs." After deductions, she was receiving approximately £7.20 per hour — below the National Minimum Wage.

Her manager had also told her verbally — never in writing — that if she "caused trouble" or tried to leave, they would "report her to the Home Office" and she would be "sent back."

What Blessing eventually did — with the help of Citizens Advice:

1. She started keeping a written record of every shift worked and every deduction made
2. She contacted ACAS (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) on 0300 123 1100 — free and confidential
3. She filed a complaint with HMRC's National Minimum Wage enforcement team
4. She contacted a new employer in her sector and arranged a visa transfer before formally raising a grievance

The outcome: her employer was investigated by HMRC. The care home was found to have underpaid multiple workers and faced significant back-pay liability and penalties. Blessing transferred her visa to a new sponsor without issue. She is still working in the UK.

The sponsorship threat was, as is so often the case, used as a bluff. Employers who break the law are rarely eager to draw attention to themselves by involving the Home Office.

What about zero-hours contracts?

Zero-hours contracts are legal in the UK. However, even on a zero-hours contract, you are entitled to:

• National Minimum Wage for every hour worked
• Holiday pay accrued on hours worked
• Protection from discrimination
• Protection from unfair treatment for turning down shifts

What is NOT legal on a zero-hours contract: being required to be exclusively available to one employer (exclusivity clauses are banned), being threatened or penalised for working for another employer simultaneously.

The Acas Code and raising a grievance

If you have an issue at work — unpaid wages, unfair treatment, discrimination — the formal route is a grievance procedure. Here's the short version:

1. Raise it informally first — speak to your line manager or HR. Do this in writing (email is fine) so there is a record.
2. If unresolved, submit a formal grievance — in writing, to HR or your employer. State the facts clearly and what you want to happen.
3. Your employer must respond within a reasonable time and hold a grievance meeting.
4. If still unresolved, you can appeal internally, or escalate to an Employment Tribunal.

Before going to an Employment Tribunal, you must first notify ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) through their Early Conciliation process. This is a mandatory step and it is free.

Employment Tribunals are free to use and you do not need a lawyer, though it helps.

Free resources and where to get help

All of the above services are free. Most are available in multiple languages. None of them will report you to the Home Office for making a call.

The bottom line

Your visa gives your employer a degree of power over your immigration status — that is real, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. But that power has legal limits. The employment law of England and Wales applies to you fully. Your employer is not above it.

Document everything. Keep copies of your payslips, your contract, your CoS, and any concerning communications. Know that ACAS, Citizens Advice, and HMRC exist precisely for situations like yours. And know that changing employer — quietly, professionally, on your own terms — is almost always a viable option, even when your employer implies otherwise.

Sources: UK Employment Rights Act 1996, National Minimum Wage Act 1998, Working Time Regulations 1998, Equality Act 2010, Modern Slavery Act 2015, Immigration Rules Appendix Skilled Worker (updated April 2024), ACAS employment rights guidance, HMRC National Minimum Wage enforcement annual report 2023–24. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. See our disclaimer.