A Malaysian hotel manager has won an employment tribunal case and received £5,497 in compensation for discrimination, despite having no legal right to work in the UK. Erin Ong, who worked at Fisherbeck Hotel in Cumbria, was awarded damages for race, sex and disability discrimination by Manchester Employment Tribunal, in a rare decision that the judge ruled was not inextricably linked to her illegal employment status. This case highlights how workers without proper visa status can still pursue discrimination claims.

Ong was hired in March 2023 by Yatson & Co on a visitor's visa to work as hotel manager, promised £28,000–£30,000 annually after a three-month probation. She suffered multiple forms of discrimination: her asthma was aggravated by workplace conditions she could not avoid, she was the only staff member required to show her passport for wage payment (considered racial discrimination), and she was dismissed in June 2023 for refusing to relocate accommodation to Kendal. She never received any wages despite the employer's agreement and notably never received a formal contract or payslips. In January 2024, her employer was fined £10,000 for employing illegal workers, with Judge Susan Dennehy ruling that whilst Ong knew she lacked legal work status, the discrimination claims stood independently of this illegality.