Indian care worker awarded nearly £30,000 after UK employer that sponsored him failed to provide work

An Indian who came to Britain as a care worker has been awarded nearly £30,000 because his employer failed to give him a single day of work for a whole year.

Shabin Shaji moved from Kerala to Stafford to work as a care sector through the post-Brexit visa scheme.

Mr Shaji made the journey to work for the care company Swan Care Solutions Ltd, believing there was a "major shortage" of healthcare workers in Great Britain.

Now, an employment tribunal has ordered the company to pay wages for the work he was "ready, able and willing to do".

Mr Shaji told the tribunal in Birmingham he had sought advice from a YouTube influencer on securing work in the UK before he departed India.

The tribunal heard how the influencer connected him with agents who he paid £17,000, before he was interviewed for a role via WhatsApp.

He was then given a certificate of sponsorship, entitling him to live and work in the UK with Swan Care Solutions as his Home Office-approved sponsoring employer.

However, Mr Shaji, who had previously worked in healthcare in India, ended up in destitution after his Staffordshire-based employer did not give him any shifts, despite his repeated pleas.

Mr Shaji, 33, won his pay claim after seeking help from the employment justice charity Work Rights Centre.

The charity's Chief Executive Dora-Olivia Vicol told The Guardian: "We’ve seen case after case of migrant care workers sold a dream in Britain, leaving their careers and families behind, only to find destitution and abandonment by their employer and the state.

"The skilled worker visa must be entirely reformed to make it easier to change employers when rights or contracts are breached.”

GB News has contacted Swan Care Solutions Ltd for a comment.

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The tribunal heard how the conditions of Mr Shaji's visa prevented him from working for anyone else for more than 20 hours a week.

He eventually managed to secure sponsorship from another employer in April 2024, a year after his arrival in the UK, but he later returned to India in ill health.

The tribunal heard how Swan Care Solutions’ staff suggested Mr Shaji take cash-in-hand jobs and use a food bank when he said he was struggling, telling him they would be in touch when it was his "turn".

At a hearing in May the company was ordered to pay £8,700 in costs, on top of the £28,843.54 it was ordered to pay him in wages and holiday pay. The company was ordered to pay a remedy for failure to provide him with a written contract and non-compliance with grievance procedures.

Mr Shaji told the tribunal: "I was broke and had to rely on charity.

"I drank tap water and bought bread close to its expiration date to survive [and] looked around local shops in Stafford for free bananas and bread for those who were struggling.

"I attended church and on Sundays after worship, the good people who attend the worship shared with me some snacks with tea, for which I am very grateful."

He added: "I thought it would be a great opportunity, but when I came to the UK I found immigrants and British people struggling. I was in a terrible situation, feeling like no one in authority cared if I lived or died."

Issuing the ruling, employment judge Kate Edmonds told the hearing: "The claimant had done what needed to be done to start work...he was now in the country, with the right permissions, and living in the right location. However, the respondent did not provide him with work, nor did they pay him.

"What in effect the respondent was doing, was treating the claimant as a zero-hours worker...the problem, of course, was that the claimant was not a zero-hours worker. The respondent withheld work from him...there was therefore an unauthorised deduction from his wages."

The hearing heard how it was "not entirely clear" how Mr Shaji initially came to be in contact with Swan Care Solutions, but it was clear he "was in touch with individuals with whom he appears to have transferred some money".

The company's licence to issue certificates of sponsorship had been "ultimately revoked" in 2024.