Crystal Umbrella

Following the sixteen recommendations made by the Migration Advisory Committee, the government are set to introduce a number of measures to protect employment opportunities for UK residents .

From 2010, there will be a requirement on employers to advertise vacancies in Jobcentre Plus for four weeks before they can seek to bring non-EU workers into the UK to fill positions. Any worker being transferred to the UK must have been employed by the company for at least 12  in order to qualify. Previously, jobs only had to be advertised for 2 weeks and the workers only had to be employed by the company for 6 months.

Non-EU workers must also qualify as skilled workers to be eligible for a transfer into the UK. This means that the worker must be earning at least £20,000. This has been increased from £17,000.

Alan Johnson, Home Secretary, said: “The introduction of the points based system has radically improved our ability to respond quickly to changing economic circumstances. We have now accepted all of the Migration Advisory Committee’s recommendations and we will continue to work with them to make sure we use the flexibility in the points system to the best advantage of society and the economy. These changes will ensure that businesses can recruit the skilled foreign workers that the economy needs, but not at the expense of British workers, nor as a cheaper alternative to investing in the skills of the existing workforce.”

The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) believe that the proposal by the Home Office’s Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) for a points-led system for immigration could result in an influx of non-EU IT graduates into the UK.

Under the MAC recommendations, graduates would be eligible to enter the UK through the intra-company transfer (ICT) system. Such graduates would only be required to have been employed by the company for three months prior to the transfer. There would be no requirement on the sponsoring company to advertise the position in the UK first. Non-graduates will be required to work for the company for at least 12 months before they will be eligible for transfer.

Chief executive of APSCo, Ann Swain, commented: “While the ICT system might not be exploited in the financial and legal sectors, there is evidence that it is being exploited in the IT sector. Nearly six times as many IT workers entered the UK last year on ICTs than workers in the entire financial services and legal sectors combined.”

She continued: “The whole point of ICT is to bring in senior staff with specialist knowledge or expertise not readily available in the UK. Using the system to bring in graduates would be wrong-headed and illogical. While graduate secondments can be a useful way for companies to train staff, these proposals could lead to a significant increase in non-EU IT graduates coming to the UK at a time when there are plenty of UK IT graduates out of work.”

“Most of the non-EU IT workers coming to the UK are working for Indian software companies. India produces enormous numbers of IT graduates every year, so there is a real concern many could head to the UK on intra-company work permits if this proposal is adopted.”

“The irony is that while graduate level IT jobs are being outsources to India it is now being proposed that it should be easier for Indian IT graduates to work in the UK at a time when there are few if any skill shortages at that level.”

‘Intra Company Transfer’ work permits have received much negative press of late owing to their reputation for displacing skilled workers, including IT contractors. The government is being advised on this issue by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC)  but is choosing to take a tougher stance than the MAC is recommending. They have advised that all that is required is for the existing rules to be more stringently enforced. However, the government have over-ridden this advice and decided to ban the use of ICT to replace a UK worker.

Managing Director of the Professional Contractors Group (PCG), John Brazier commented in a press release: “The government is to be congratulated on taking a tougher line on the ICTs than the MAC recommendations, exactly what PCG has been calling for. This new measure seems to send a clear signal to those abusing the system: replacing highly skilled contractors with ICT workers will no longer be tolerated.”

He continued: “However, the new rules are still too vague and we will be seeking clarification from the government on their exact implications. It must be totally clear that firms cannot work round the system and seek loopholes.”

MAC has advised the government that they should lengthen the time an ICT migrant has worked for the company, from 6 months to 12 months, prior to being able to work in the UK.

As it stands, ICTs are the simplest work permits to acquire as there is no requirement on the company to prove that the position could be filled by a worker in the UK. Companies can, and often do, transfer in thousands of workers at a time. Currently 65% of ICT permits are for the IT sector.

Speaking about the MAC report, John Brazier said: “These additional changes, though welcome, simply do not go far enough. It is certainly true that the government needs to take a harder line on enforcement, and we strongly urge that they do so, but we wanted to see the MAC come up with more specific measure to protect the UK’s freelance workforce.”

He concluded, “Freelancers are key to the UK’s future economic recovery, and we will continue to campaign hard for more stringent ICT rules.”