Should UK Issue Working Visas For
Foreign Lorry Drivers?
With the threat of a
Christmas shortage of turkeys, the UK government is under pressure to create a
short-term working visa scheme for foreign lorry drivers, the BBC reports.
The Covid pandemic
and Brexit has left transport firms desperate to recruit drivers and government
departments have been in discussion options with the industry, including introducing
special visas.
Ministers have
rejected calls to introduce visas for drivers while urging firms to use local
labour.
The industry wants
drivers to be added to the official UK Shortage Occupations list, enabling them
to qualify for a skilled worker visa.
Is UK immigration
the magic bullet for industry?
But the government
wants the industry to employ British drivers, which the industry said is
impossible in the short term due to the training costs and time it takes to
pass the rigorous HGV (heavy goods vehicle) driving test in the UK.
Training HGV drivers
typically takes six to nine months and costs up to £7,000. Many British drivers
claim that the low pay and poor working conditions are deterring people from
entering the sector.
Businesses warn that
the shortage of drivers is jeopardising deliveries to retailers and pushing up food
prices for consumers.
The sector is also reeling
from the impact of the pandemic, which has prevented thousands of new drivers
from taking their HGV tests last year.
European drivers
returned home when work dried up last year and have not been able to return
because of immigration rules brought in after Brexit. Thousands of EU migrants
failed to apply for UK settlement despite efforts by the Home Office to promote
a low-cost easy route during the two-year run up to Brexit.
The Road Haulage
Association estimates that there is currently a shortfall of about 60,000
hauliers and said that the situation for food supplies was "close to a
crisis point".
There was a risk
that some items would run out in supermarkets at certain times in a way similar
to "rolling blackouts" for electricity, it said. Source: BBC.
As I said in my video
post this week, I have not yet seen any evidence
of major shortages on supermarket shelves. The problem is that warnings of a
food shortage could become a self-fulfilling prophesy as shoppers start to hoard
and panic buy.
Should the Home
Office issue special UK working visas for drivers, they will almost certainly
apply only to EU citizens.
Importing overseas
workers to plug skill shortages has been used in the UK since the 1950’s ‘Windrush’
generation right up to hiring nurses from the Philippines and other countries
today.
What’s your view?
Should we train more British workers to do those jobs or is it the situation
more complex?
See also:
Mastering Money The S.M.A.R.T Way Without
Working Any Harder, Lesson #6
Where Is The Cheapest Property For Sale In
The UK?
Average houses
prices falling after the rush to beat the Stamp Duty
Holiday - https://youtu.be/O4SSsJ0sRt4.
Bitcoin Hits $50,000 But Will It Go Higher
And Should You Invest In Cryptocurrency?
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