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Employers should be forced to advertise openings in the UK before importing their staff from overseas to fill them, a Home Office review into migration rules has been told. The submission by the Association of Professional Staffing Companies follows BT’s replacement of IT contractors in the UK with staff transferred from its Indian subsidiary. By using the intra-company transfer route, the company was able to replace UK-based contractors on £400 a day, with staff from India commanding half that rate. Explaining its submission to the committee, the association said the intra-company transfer system “inhibits job creation in the UK,” and “undercuts” UK workers’ wages. “The Home Office should clampdown on practices which make it difficult to ensure workers brought to the UK on intra-company transfers are being paid at the UK market rate. “These include paying workers in foreign currencies in offshore bank accounts or providing accommodation in lieu of pay,” APSCo said in its evidence to the Migration Advisory Committee. Ann Swain, group chief executive, explained the rules were harming the IT sector, as most of its non-EU transferees were junior to mid-level techies, who are in “plentiful supply” in the UK. Like APSCo, the Professional Contractors Group wants the current rules, which say employers need not advertise UK roles if their overseas staff can fill them, to be changed. Speaking after the revelations at BT, the PCG reflected: “We will shortly be making our submissions to the MAC calling for significant amendments to the system. “Ideally, we would like to see no position filled by an intra-company transfer without first ensuring that no UK worker is available to fill the post, in a similar manner to that of non-ICT visas.” John Brazier, PCG managing director, added: “Our recent evidence gathering campaign has shown that abuses of the system do take place and thus it urgently needs reform. “Contractors are losing out, and in a recession, action needs to be taken to protect livelihoods.” Since his comments, one of the UK’s most respected think-tanks has declared that the recession is over, as the economy returned to growth, albeit modestly, in April and May. The unofficial reading by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research was said to be the first evidence of monthly gains in gross domestic product since April 2008. But the slight upturn in economic output will not prevent further rises this year in unemployment, which currently stands at 2.2million, said NIESR, tempering its optimism. It seems, however, that some of the IT jobs market is already in the recovery mode that the economy has apparently entered, according to fresh data from two IT staffing groups. Powerchex, which screens IT staff for financers, said the number of job offers to IT contractors last month was higher than that for five other types of financial worker. Alexandra Kelly, the firm’s director, said: “The biggest indicator that companies believe the worst times are over… [is] that IT contractors servicing the finance industry saw a 100% increase in the number of offers from April to May.” Meanwhile, the latest REC Report on Jobs said that, while the number of contract roles continues to shrink, 60% of its members, who include IT recruiters, said demand was stable or increasing. The report found that all seven sectors, including IT, had fewer opportunities for temporary staff for the tenth month consecutively, but the decline was the weakest since September. This suggested easing in the dip in IT jobs is yet to reach agents at SQ Computer Personnel, who told CUK of increasing “anguish and desperation” among IT contractor candidates. The picture of the temporary IT skills market is less mixed for .NET, Sharepoint and CNC specialists, which the REC said were the most sought-after IT contractors in May. Apart from CNC, the same skills are the most in demand among recruiters who place IT staff on a full-time basis, the report found, in addition to PHP and Business Intelligence. Jun 12, 2009 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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