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The state’s tightening of immigration rules to stop skilled workers from outside the European Union taking jobs in Britain does not go far enough, an IT staffing body is warning. Despite ministers claiming the reform means UK job-seekers will no longer be bypassed, APSCo says the changes may actually cause the number of non-EU IT workers coming to Britain to increase. The group said this is because the state wants graduates working at UK firms’ overseas offices to be eligible for transfer to Britain without the employer having to advertise the UK role which they will fill. This comes despite a recent amendment to Tier 2 of the points-based immigration system which means such intra company transfer workers will not be able to “directly replace a UK worker”. The government has also announced that, from next year, workers on these ICT permits will need to have worked at the same company for 12 months, up from six months currently. This measure has been deployed to make it more difficult for employers to take on workers in cheaper locations abroad for the primary purpose of transferring them to the UK. In addition, the government says the minimum annual salary for an individual to qualify as a skilled worker and be eligible to work in Britain will rise from £17,000 to £20,000. This should help stem the tide of IT workers coming to Britain from lower-cost countries such as India, which is consecutively the leading recipient of ICTs for Britain’s IT sector. But Ann Swain, chief executive of APSCO said: “These changes will do very little to slow the influx of non-EU IT workers coming to the UK. “In fact, by making it possible for companies to bring graduates in on intra-company transfers, we could see more foreign workers coming to the UK than would have been the case had the government done nothing at all!” The group argued that extending the qualifying period for intra-company transfers from six months to 12 months was “unlikely to have much impact.” Ms Swain said: “It would only exclude a very small percentage of the workforce of a large IT outsourcing company and there is seldom much business benefit to transferring workers with less than six months employment anyway." Sep 15, 2009 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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