BREXIT: Could this be HR’s finest hour?

“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Summary: This article discusses the Brexit challenges being faced by EU-employees in the UK and offers tips on how HR could support them in their ordeal. 

Yesterday MPs refused to protect unilaterally the rights of EU nationals living in the UK. Their vote on Monday evening (March 13th, 2017) allows Theresa May to negotiate over the rights of EU nationals in the UK in exchange for the rights of British citizens in the EU. Yes, the Home Office has repeatedly said it cannot guarantee those rights for EU citizens in the UK unless the rights of the British people in the EU are reciprocated. The House of Lords initially disagreed, they amended the government’s Brexit bill to demand that the rights of the EU and EEA nationals and their family members who are legally resident in the UK should be immediately guaranteed, insisting that the government should not wait for an equivalent assurance over the British citizens in the EU before acting, unfortunately this bill was rejected.

There’s no doubt that the Brexit vote is sending shockwaves through workplaces across the UK. At the moment Theresa May is under clear pressure over the fate of 3.2 million EU nationals living in the UK. In the government’s own words: The UK would lose “negotiating capital” in Europe if it unilaterally granted EU citizens the right to remain after Brexit. It has been made clear that the government could make it very difficult for people to stay in UK if the rights of the 1.2 million Britons living in the EU are not protected. Does this mean that if Britain fails to get a deal for Britons in Europe it is highly likely that it will penalise / move to deport EU citizens in retaliation?

In this respect, the use of people’s lives for the purposes of bullying and blackmailing the EU in the Brexit negotiation process is morally unacceptable and has no place in Europe in the 21st century. The UK needs to show the way, set the example, and keep the moral high ground in this sensitive political impasse. We must show Europe what our values are made of, irrespective of what the EU decides to do with Britons living in mainland Europe, the UK needs to do what is right. Unilaterally guaranteeing the rights of 3.2 million EU citizens to remain in the UK is the correct thing to do.

After Brexit, EU citizens already in the country should continue to be treated in the same way as any other UK citizen, as it always has been. We are not talking about fisheries in the North Sea or trade agreements with Europe, it is not about retaining ‘talent’ in the UK, all those foreign medical doctors, scientists, academics, IT professionals, we are talking about actual lives, about people who have lived in the UK for many years with their families and call it their home. You can’t negotiate with people’s futures, human beings should not be treated as bargaining chips in Brexit negotiations, that is wrong and it is imperative to defend our British values of democracy and inclusion.

Now is the time for the HR Community to shine

This is the time for the UK HR community to act. The time has come to put into practice all those nice Corporate Social Responsibility statements published by major employers in the UK: ‘To safeguard the wellbeing of their employees’. An organisation which cares for the welfare of its employees, not only fulfils its responsibility towards the internal stakeholders but also towards the community at large.

EU citizens are currently entitled to live in the UK under European law, freedom of movement which was agreed by the UK, but once the UK leaves Europe, almost all rights apart from the right to own property or a business, which are protected under international law, will need to be reasserted.

There are real people being caught up in this Kafkaesque situation. This is something they are not in any way to blame, it is the result of the UK/EU free movement agreement which formed the basis for their right to come to the UK and remain, nobody would have ever imagined that Brexit would happen one day… this was simply unthinkable until June 23rd last year. It is necessary for employers and their HR teams to put themselves in these people’s shoes and see the anxiety it is causing and do something about it.

Since voting for Brexit thousands of EU citizens working in the UK have been panicking and feel they are being forced to apply for Permanent Resident (PR) cards that guarantees them the right to live and work in the UK. In their own words:

“We have been referred to as ‘main cards in the negotiations’, ‘bargaining chips’ and now ‘negotiating capital’. Does that make you feel valued?”

“We are, it seems, not really people at all, just ‘negotiating material’. I have never been described as a ‘chip’ or ‘material’ before. Surely this is discriminatory language prohibited under equality laws?”

EU nationals living in the UK for more than 5, 10, 20 years did not have a vote in the referendum. No need to say that if these EU nationals, that are also part of the fabric of UK society, had had the chance to vote, Brexit would have never happened (same goes for Britons living abroad who were not allowed to vote in the referendum). EU Nationals came to the UK legally and have participated and contributed to the UK economically and culturally and enriched UK society as a whole. The vast majority have worked hard, paid their taxes, integrated, raised families and put down roots. It is difficult to see what more the UK could have asked of them.

Nowadays employees of EU-citizen background are a key component of any British organization. Now they are being made to feel like second-class citizens / treated as second class people. This is not right and British employers, especially the HR Community, need to manifest themselves as best as they can to back up their own EU employees, the people that, with their talent, helped their organisations become what they are today, competitive and successful. This is the time for us to shine!!!

How can the UK HR community support EU citizens?

If their current rights to reside in the UK are not guaranteed after Brexit, EU citizens being employed in the UK could have their lives turned upside down, with their bank accounts being closed, their employment being terminated, the DVLA taking away their driving licences, their mortgage and rental agreements revoked, etc. The UK HR community needs to communicate a very clear stance on this matter: its full support for EU citizens / to grant all the necessary backing to safe-guard their well-being while being employed in the UK.

So, how can HR reassure their EU staff after the Brexit vote? The following steps can be followed to ensure each organisation has a clear HR plan on how to support EU citizens working in British companies during the turbulent and very uncertain process of triggering of Article 50:

1. Designate who in your organisation will be responsible for Brexit impact management. Who will be your internal ‘Brexit Support Champion’?
2. Audit your staff and check EU workers’ immigration status. Determine the profile of your workforce: How many non-UK citizens work for your organisation? Where do they sit in the organisation? How many British citizens are married to non-UK nationals? How many Britons work for your organisation in mainland Europe?
3. Measure the resulting employee engagement risk: Organise a quick pulse survey to evaluate the impact of the current external political environment on your workforce, especially among EU citizens.
4. Evaluate and quantify the impact of the existing engagement risk and potential loss of talent.
5. Inform senior leadership about the impact of Brexit negotiations on the workforce and business performance and seek their commitment to act in a supportive way towards those EU employees being affected by the current political uncertainty and potentially unfavourable policies linked to Brexit.
6. Organise clear employee communications on the subject:

• Reassure EU citizens on the commitment the organisation has towards them. Keep them informed about the progress of Brexit negotiations linked to their employment. Provide communications that are factual and not speculative. Speculative communication can give a false sense of certainty which can then cause disengagement and disintegration of trust if the outcome is not as originally thought.
• Demonstrate that the organisation cares about their employees. Communicate the potential scenarios once article 50 is triggered and what the stance of the organisation will be in each of those scenarios.
• Consider regular briefings or publishing an ongoing Q&A.
• Avoid being political in your communications which could inadvertently alienate employees who have different opinions - ensure differences of opinion do not spill over into disrespect.

7. Offer support and legal advice to EU employees on how to safeguard their UK residence rights or those of British employees’ non-British spouses / partners by:

• Assisting with applications for indefinite leave to remain for employees who have resided in the UK for five years or more;
• Assisting those with less than five years in the UK to obtain registration certificates to record their current status in the UK;
• Assisting with applications for British citizenship for those who have six years residence in the UK;
• Evaluating what rights to British citizenship employees might have on a spousal or ancestry basis;
• Allowing employees to take time off in relation to completing the necessary paperwork required to apply for their PR. The 85-page application form requires huge files of documentation including P60s for five years, historic utility bills and a diary of all occasions an individual has left the country since they settled in the UK;
• Offering “comprehensive sickness insurance (CSI)” to EU employees on leave without pay and to non-EEA spouses/civil partners of employees as this is a permanent residency requirement for them to stay in the country. EU citizens living in the UK are supposed to have private insurance when they are on parental leave or otherwise not working – and not to have taken it out negatively affects a person’s right to secure permanent residency in the country. Is CSI a little-known loophole used by the government to deny EU citizens permanent residency?

8. Finally and most importantly, take action to protect employees from any potential harassment and / or discrimination. In terms of communications, employers with significant numbers of EU and other foreign nationals on their staff should be reiterating the company’s policies and attitude towards any form of bullying or harassment on racial or ethnic grounds.

In the ‘nightmare scenario’ in which the government decides that those settled in the country before the referendum do not have the right to stay when the UK leaves the EU will mainly affect women on maternity leave / mothers who had to stop work to take care of their children. Remember their immediate families are not in the country to support them with childcare, they were indirectly forced to quit their jobs to be able to start a family. Any period out of work (without pay) is a very negative score for the purposes of obtaining a residence permit in the UK.

Let’s make them feel at home again!!!

Treat those employees who will be negatively impacted by Brexit with dignity, respect and support. Not only is it the humane thing to do, it also is a powerful way of showing those who remain what kind of company they work for.

Their pain is real, the damage is done, BREXIT has sent the wrong messages not only to EU-citizens living in the UK, but also to all other minority groups in British society: if it can happen to them, why not to us?

Every day of government fudging over this issue is a day when EU employees and their families wonder about their status in Britain. It is imperative for HR to reassure and support EU citizens / colleagues seeking to secure the right of permanent residency in the UK, but in doing so, employers need to resist the urge to tell their EU employees that everything will be ‘business as usual’. Don’t attempt to sugar-coat things with false clichés such as calling the deal as “it will never happen, don’t worry, it will be impossible to implement”. The situation of EU-citizens living in the UK is difficult to understand unless you are in their own vulnerable position.

Employers and their HR departments should show every sympathy for those EU citizens who are fearful for their future in the UK and try their best to play by the Home Office’s rules. They are already being subjected to a ‘deliberate hostility policy’ by the Home Office, where life is made so difficult to them that it becomes near impossible or impossible to stay in the country; without their relatives in the country, their closest family and only support becomes their own employers: Employers have an obligation towards these employees. 

It is becoming clear that the big question for EU employees working in the UK may not be whether a departure from the EU will result in them being forced to leave, so much as whether a ‘Brexited’ Britain will be the kind of country in which they want to stay? After all, with immigration demagoguery so dominant in the Brexit campaign, it is hard for some EU citizens, resident here, not to wonder whether it is all becoming a bit personal with them.

It will take time to recover from this political mismanagement of Brexit and the chaotic implementation of Article 50. Productivity, engagement and commitment of EU employees will certainly be affected to the detriment of British business. In the meantime, the UK HR community needs to lobby for their senior leadership’s full support and commitment towards these members of their corporate family: Let’s make sure we make them feel at home again!!!

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