Changes in Home Office regulations for
employers, coming into effect at the end of this month, may have serious
implications for many transsexual people, at least until they are able to
obtain corrected birth certificates.
The regulations are part of steps being
taken to clamp down on illegal working in the UK and are explained in detail
in a new leaflet, available here in Adobe .PDF [Click
Here].
Under section 8 of the Asylum and
Immigration Act 1996, all UK employers have to carry out certain basic
checks to ensure that the people they recruit have a bona-fide right to work
in the UK. The checks have always been designed to be simple to carry out
and basically involve asking to see documentary proof of citizenship or a
work permit. Provided employers have followed the guidelines they can claim
a statutory defense against prosecution for employing anyone who later turns
out to be working illegally.
Changes in the evidence requirements from
May 1st 2004, coupled with an increased obligation to carry out checks
across the board, have serious implications for UK trans people though.
The new regulations require employers to
arm themselves with one of two kinds of evidence in order to protect
themselves. Furthermore, in order to protect themselves against possible
accusations of race
discrimination, employers are strongly exhorted to carry out these checks on
ALL recruits, not just those who "look foreign".
The simplest form of evidence which an
employer can accept is a passport. If you have a FULL passport which
describes you in your correct gender role then there is no problem; that is
all the employer will need to see.
If you haven't got a FULL passport,
however, then the alternative form of ID which an employer will need o see
is a combination of two documents. One of those two will always be a formal
proof of your
National Insurance Number (NINo) - such as
a P45, P60, NINo card or tax office correspondence. The second accompanying
piece of evidence will be a FULL birth certificate (i.e. containing the
details of at least one parent). Needless to say, this will be the problem
area for many people until the Gender Recognition Bill is in effect and
their papers have been corrected.
For many trans people there may not be an
overall problem of course - so long as you have a passport.
However, it has been passport agency practice in the past to only issue
visitors passports to people prior to surgery. There may therefore be many
people, especially in transition, who need to rely on the second form of
evidence and will therefore be compulsorily embarassed by the obligation to
produce a birth certificate in their old identity. (It is also questionnable
whether that old birth certificate can then be proved to be
"theirs" too. Whatever the case, the new regulation creates just
one more hurdle for trans people to negotiate in order to obtain work that
they are legally entitled to do.
These provisions have emerged out of the
blue -- needless to say without consultation. We will therefore take up the
issues with Ministers and officials in the coming days and weeks to see what
can be done. In the meantime, if you have a passport or can afford to get
one, then these provisions shouldn't be a problem.
If anyone encounters problems because they
are changing jobs and cannot obtain a full passport then please let us know
your circumstances at editor@pfc.org.uk
.We'll need to know, for instance, why you can't get a full passport
and why you are planning to start a new job at this time.
Employers may not all rush to implement the
provisions of course. Nevertheless, they may do later and want to
retrospectively complete their records. The implications of this policy
change could therefore be massive.
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Citation: Press
For Change, Home Office, UK
