Cameron gives his personal backing to contractors

[TimberWolf]

The average salary paid to Indian programmer is around £8k pa (Equivalent to 0.5 - 0.6 m in Indian Rupees). The linky says the company does not have to pay NI contribution as long as the employee is here for less than 52 weeks (1 yr).

What a business can do here is hire a team of developer in India, pay them 0.6 m Indian Rupees, bring them here for a year in small batch. Rent out a house in suburbs and house them. In all this would probably cost the company £15k PA per person, which is not cheaper than average graduate programmer.

The main reason why Indian IT professionals are sought after in USA atleast is not their cost or knowledge, but their attitude. Working from 8.30 to 21.00 is accepted standard for average Indian worker. I dont see any UK permie/contractor working these hours in that salary....

So 12.5 hour days, 62.h hours/week. 48 hours/week being the legal (sustained) limit in the UK? And unless you can nip out at lunchtime, many of those hours would probably be counter productive anyway.

[TimberWolf]

Guys, Call-me-Dave's only been in the job a few months; give the guy a chance.

Admittedly his negotiating position with India was tulip, as we were already full to the gunnels. I'm not keen on the dishonesty and misdirection involved though. Despite the perception of recent events being good news for contractors, what I see is him allowing unlimited immigration, for IT only, and this being accomplished by removing ICTs from the immigration figures while at the same time setting no upper limit. The 24K is just a red Herring. Labour were right, it is a Con. Nothing to applaud IMO.

[Doggy Styles]

Whatever you say about the coallition/tories, they cannot be worse than the last lot. They actively punished contractors and flung open the borders.

[alreadypacked]

The average salary paid to Indian programmer is around £8k pa (Equivalent to 0.5 - 0.6 m in Indian Rupees). The linky says the company does not have to pay NI contribution as long as the employee is here for less than 52 weeks (1 yr).

What a business can do here is hire a team of developer in India, pay them 0.6 m Indian Rupees, bring them here for a year in small batch. Rent out a house in suburbs and house them. In all this would probably cost the company £15k PA per person, which is not cheaper than average graduate programmer.

The main reason why Indian IT professionals are sought after in USA atleast is not their cost or knowledge, but their attitude. Working from 8.30 to 21.00 is accepted standard for average Indian worker. I dont see any UK permie/contractor working these hours in that salary....

UK contractors don't need to work long hours to get the job done. I spoke to an old manager who was told to replace an on shore team of 7 with an off shore team. They have upped the off-shore team to 25 and still can't get the work done.

[Zippy]

UK contractors don't need to work long hours to get the job done. I spoke to an old manager who was told to replace an on shore team of 7 with an off shore team. They have upped the off-shore team to 25 and still can't get the work done.

I really would like to say I am surprised. I'm not.

[MayContainNuts]

It's good that the Tories have stood up at last and nailed their colours to the mast!

Hopefully we will be rewarded at some point in the future. Maybe the removal of IR35?

[OwlHoot]

UK contractors don't need to work long hours to get the job done. I spoke to an old manager who was told to replace an on shore team of 7 with an off shore team. They have upped the off-shore team to 25 and still can't get the work done.

Hehe - That's exactly what must be happening to the clientco team I was in last year (in Shaftesbury Avenue, NickFitz, if you read this ) The software was very old and intricate, with multiple paw prints all over it, dependent on a host of equally complex proprietary tools, and held together with sticking plaster. But some big wig in their ivory tower decided it was a smart idea to replace our team of 4 with a team of 6 based in Bangalore.

P.S. Must be getting pretty nippy in Zurich by now.

[Walsingham]

The average salary paid to Indian programmer is around £8k pa (Equivalent to 0.5 - 0.6 m in Indian Rupees). The linky says the company does not have to pay NI contribution as long as the employee is here for less than 52 weeks (1 yr).

What a business can do here is hire a team of developer in India, pay them 0.6 m Indian Rupees, bring them here for a year in small batch. Rent out a house in suburbs and house them. In all this would probably cost the company £15k PA per person, which is not cheaper than average graduate programmer.

The main reason why Indian IT professionals are sought after in USA atleast is not their cost or knowledge, but their attitude. Working from 8.30 to 21.00 is accepted standard for average Indian worker. I dont see any UK permie/contractor working these hours in that salary....

That's a laugh. I had to go into the office for the 3 days between last Christmas and New Year. The whole time the 3 indians on the next bank of desks sat around talking and surfing the net. They might be sat in the office all hours but they won't be working. The idea that they are genuinely more assiduous or productive than anyone else is a complete lie.

This was a publicly funded project by the way, paying foreign nationals UK tax payer's money to sit around and do nothing.

[Green Mango]

UK contractors don't need to work long hours to get the job done. I spoke to an old manager who was told to replace an on shore team of 7 with an off shore team. They have upped the off-shore team to 25 and still can't get the work done.

Mmm we see the odd case were an Indian team fails, but I'm sure there must be many more cases were they succeed and at the fraction of the cost of a UK team.

The Indians (from India) I've worked with have generally seemed pretty good.

[Green Mango]

It's good that the Tories have stood up at last and nailed their colours to the mast!

Hopefully we will be rewarded at some point in the future. Maybe the removal of IR35?

I'm encoraged too. Labours starting point was we are slimey characters who deserve a good slapping tax wise at least Camerons tone is positive.