Employment Bill [HL]

I, too, support the amendment as I think that the points made on it have been very sound. In my experience of an industrial tribunal, we had to reject such cases. One case involved an underage person who was not entitled to work because they were not old enough to be employed, and we were unable even to consider the matter. I have raised in the Chamber the issue of someone I met who came to this country and went to work for a company, thinking that they were employed and in the country legally—although they were still in the country as an illegal immigrant. They worked for the company and tax was deducted; they were given a national insurance number; then the company went broke, and they had no rights to any wages of any sort and they could not get their tax back because the tax had never been paid in and the national insurance number was fictitious. Apparently, some firms have national insurance numbers that do not belong to any individual but are passed from employee to employee as an illegal ploy. Would the proposal help that sort of person? The noble Baroness, Lady Turner, spoke about legal immigrants, but what is the position of someone who is not legal but is unaware of just how illegal the whole thing is? I understand that if you know that you are illegal and outside your rights, the amendment would not help you—but what about those poor, gullible people brought into this country, probably illegally, who find themselves in a position without help? What would their position be under this amendment?