Accommodation As A Sponsored Employee.

[CheriMini]

Hello.

I need some advise please. I have now applied for my Health and Care Worker visa. Waiting for reply.

I have started discussing accommodation with my employer. I have saved enough to rent myself a studio or 1 bedroom flat for at least 6 months without using my prospective salary. I have checked and constantly checking rent prices so I'm sure of my position on this, I can afford it.

Now my employer wants me to live in shared accommodation with other unmarried employees also coming from overseas.

I do not want to do so. I need a work-life balance which includes having my personal space and a clear boundary between my work life and my personal life. It's seems the employer wants us in the same house so they can monitor our movements and activities both at home and at work.

Secondly with my experience with shared accommodation, I know the negative toll it takes on my mental health and being someone who priorities her mental health and is aware of her triggers, I can't put myself into that situation.

Indeed, I am someone who is respectful and cordial with my colleagues but I believe that it doesn't make them automatic friends who I should also have in my personal space.

Is my employer allowed to force me into company rented shared accommodation? They will be taking rent money from my salary then we pay bills on our own.

I believed my responsibility is to honour my 3 year work contract, show up to work as required, do my best and perform my role and responsibilities to exceptional standards.

I strongly trust I have the right to choose where I live and who I live with.

Should my employer control where I live and who I live with?

Please kindly advise me.

[9elizabeth]

I am not a professional to advise but to my understanding your employer cannot force you to live in his provided accommodation. Outside work, you have your own life to live and you should be in full control of your life.

[Frontier Mole]

It is not uncommon for less scrupulous private care sector businesses to insist that their overseas workers take up the in house accommodation. There is a simple reason for this - they charge rent and they will almost certainly own the accommodation so will profit from it. In essence it is a way of having a forced return of pay to the employer.

[lolo2]

Is my employer allowed to force me into company rented shared accommodation? They will be taking rent money from my salary then we pay bills on our own.

Should my employer control where I live and who I live with?

I'm not an expert either, but this looks like some sort of coercive control? And I believe this practice is illegal in the UK.

There's no physical violence involved but still the economic/freedom-to-choose control seems to be coercive.

Just my humble opinion, again I'm not a legal expert but this seems dodgy.