From Kerala to England: Indian man with no job offer despite sponsored UK visa wins £30K compensation

The Indian citizen has since been at the centre of a legal tussle that started after the UK company failed to make provisions for him to work a single day for a year, forcing him to lose wages that an employed position would have promised otherwise. Shabin Shaji’s pay claim victory comes after he fervently urged employment justice charity Work Rights Centre to help him.

Cut to 2026, three years after Shaji arrived in the UK to work as a care worker, the Indian man has landed a massive victory in a landmark case, according to a report by UK news outlet The Guardian over the weekend. Following consequential progress in the years-old case, Shaji has been awarded nearly £30,000. An employment tribunal ordered Swan Care Solutions Ltd to compensate him for the work he was “ready, able and willing to do.”

How CS graduate from Kerala ended up in destitution after no UK job

An official introduction into the 33-year-old Kerala man’s England move states, “The claimant is an Indian citizen who came to the UK under a certificate of sponsorship which named the respondent as his employer. He says that he had been made an offer of employment, which he had accepted, and he came to the UK ready, able and willing to complete that role. He says that the respondent never provided him with work to do and never paid him, and claims that this amounted to an unauthorised deduction from wages, amongst other things,” according to documents obtained from the official UK Government website.

Coming out of college as a computer science graduate with previous work experience in India’s healthcare system, Shaji attached high hopes to his UK switch. However, all hopes of a promising future were washed down the drain when the Staffordshire-based company failed to allot him any shifts. As his repeated requests for a job went unheard, the Keralite’s work status remained in limbo.

Since Swan Care Solutions Ltd originally sponsored his worker visa, Shaji couldn’t work for anyone else for more than 20 hours a week. In April 2024, a year after coming to the UK, the Indian citizen expanded his horizons and secured another visa sponsorship from a different employer. However, even that alternative didn’t pan out successfully, as Shaji ended up returning to his home country due to health issues.

Shaji, for his part, argued during a hearing earlier this year that the circumstances left him “broke” and forced him to rely on charity. As quoted by The Guardian, the Indian man said, “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.”

Additionally, he asserted that the UK company’s action took a toll on his personal and family finances, resulting in “serious long-term detrimental effects.” Shaji also noted at the time that he emigrated from Kerala to England, viewing the move as a “great opportunity.” On the contrary, a different reality awaited in the UK, as he “found immigrants and British people struggling. “

Action against UK company for failing to give Indian visa holder a job

Swan Care Solutions was ordered to pay £8,700 in costs, in addition to the sizeable amount of  £28,843.54 it was told to pay Shaji in wages and holiday pay, on top of remedy after failing to provide the man with a written contract and not complying with grievance procedures.

On top of that, arguments made during the tribunal case suggested that the UK company’s staff pushed the Indian man to make the most of cash-in-hand jobs and rely on a food bank amid the ongoing crisis, The Guardian reported. It was also revealed that the company hinted at reaching out to him when it was his “turn.”

Consequently, employment judge Kate Edmonds spoke out against the company, stating, “The respondent withheld work from him … There was therefore an unauthorised deduction from his wages,” at a hearing in Birmingham in March.

Speaking in favour of Shaji, the judge asserted, “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.”

Judge Edmonds further stated that the British care company Swan Care Solutions’ license to issue certificates of sponsorship was “ultimately revoked” in 2024. According to The Guardian, the firm’s failure to pay workers until the completion of training was cited as one of the major factors fuelling the decision.

Determining additional losses incurred by the Indian man, the tribunal hearing divulged that he was granted a certificate of sponsorship after he connected with agents and sought advice elsewhere. The Keralite admitted to the tribunal that a YouTuber influencer gave him advice on work-related matters in the UK. Through her reference, he ultimately got in touch with agents whom he paid £17,000.

Thereafter, he was interviewed for a role at the UK company on WhatsApp. He was subsequently granted a certificate of sponsorship, which allowed him to live and work in the United Kingdom, while Swan Care Solutions remained his government-approved sponsor and employer.

Controversial UK visa scheme blamed for care worker abuse back in focus

Shaji’s case isn’t the first one to be flagged under the overarching umbrella of the controversial post-Brexit work visa system. Even the UK’s independent anti-slavery commissioner, Eleanor Lyons, slammed the visa route for causing “some really severe exploitation.”

It was introduced in February 2022 to counter staffing shortages in social care, which were further fuelled by the end of free movement post-Brexit. Shaji also moved to the UK under the impression that there was a “major shortage” of healthcare workers in the United Kingdom.

More than a quarter of the approximately 155,000 care workers, including Shaji, who came to the UK between February 2022 and December 2024, were hired by employers who eventually lost their license, as the surging controversy raised fears of abuse, fraud and exploitation. While Lyons flagged the “alarming” number of license revocations, the Work Rights Centre said they were hinting at a “national scandal.”

Official details of the case, titled “Mr S Shaji v Swan Care Solutions Ltd and E Chengeta: 1308762/2023,” are available on the UK Government website.