Blacklists: How Employers Can Reduce the Risks of Informal Hiring

What the Statement Establishes—and What Remains Undisclosed

The original report presents the senator’s assessment: the existence of blacklists influences employers’ hiring decisions and creates an additional incentive to formalize workers’ employment in accordance with the law. This is a public position, not a description of a new regulatory procedure. The material does not confirm that a new register has been created, that the grounds for inclusion have changed, or that additional sanctions have taken effect.

It is not specified which lists are meant, who maintains them, how employers should use them, or what the legal consequences of being included in such a list are. Therefore, a company should not base HR decisions on assumptions about an unknown mechanism. The correct conclusion from the publication is to strengthen control over the documentation requirements that already apply in a particular situation.

Where Informal Hiring Becomes a Management Problem

The risk is created not only by workers hired directly. Foreign nationals engaged by a contractor, subcontractor or through outstaffing may be working at a company’s site. The actual admission of personnel to the site is often approved by site and department managers, while the documents are held by the HR department, lawyers or an external provider. Without a unified control framework, the company may not see the full picture.

For an employer, the consequences of informal employment go beyond possible liability for migration and labor violations. An inspection may halt operations, require the urgent replacement of personnel and trigger a dispute with the contractor over who is responsible for the violations. Reputational damage and failure to meet obligations to a customer may also be substantial. If the applicable register is used by regulatory authorities, ignoring its data may further increase the risks during an inspection.

How to Set Up Checks Before Allowing Access to Work

It is advisable to start with a consolidated register: it should include all foreign workers, as well as foreign personnel employed by contractors at the company’s sites. For each person, it is important to verify the documents confirming lawful residence and the right to work, their validity periods, and whether the region and position correspond to the work actually performed. If the documents have not been provided, have expired or raise doubts, access to work should not be maintained.

A separate block concerns the existence of employment or civil-law contracts and mandatory notifications when they are required in a particular case. It is important not to limit the review to the formal presence of files: the HR department and the head of the relevant unit must compare the documents with the person’s actual location, function and form of engagement. This approach helps identify discrepancies before they become the subject of an inspection.

Contractors: Include Migration Controls in the Contractual Model

The customer commissioning the work should request from contractors lists of the foreign nationals engaged and documents confirming that they have been lawfully admitted to work. This makes it possible to understand who is actually present at the site and compare the information with the internal register. For large or distributed sites, it is particularly useful to establish a single procedure for exchanging such data among procurement, the security service, the HR function and site managers.

It is advisable to supplement contracts with contractors with an obligation to confirm the legality of the engaged personnel and compensate losses resulting from violations. The wording and scope of the obligations depend on the specific contract and situation; they are not disclosed in the material presented. The main point for the employer is not to replace verification with the contractor’s contractual promise, but to arrange confirmation before and during the performance of the work.

What to Do Now—and What Not to Wait For

The publication does not name a launch date for a new mechanism, a transition period or a special deadline for employers. Therefore, it cannot be claimed that businesses have been given any period for adaptation or that a new procedure for checking blacklists exists. Appoint a person responsible for monitoring official clarifications and applicable registers in order to distinguish confirmed changes from public statements.

It is reasonable to begin checking HR and migration documents without waiting for additional announcements. The result should be a clear procedure: who collects the documents, who decides whether to grant access to work, how doubts are recorded and how the company acts when the necessary documents expire or cannot be confirmed. This reduces the business’s dependence on ad hoc decisions made at the site level or by an individual manager.

What to Check

• Create a single register of foreign workers, including contractors’ personnel at the sites.
• Check documents confirming lawful residence and the right to work, their validity periods, the region and the position.
• Compare the actual work performed with the information in the work authorization documents.
• Check for employment or civil-law contracts and notifications, if they are required.
• Request lists of foreign personnel and supporting documents from contractors.
• Appoint a person responsible for monitoring official clarifications and applicable registers.
• Approve a procedure for immediate suspension from work when documents expire or cannot be confirmed.