Highlights:
·
Fast track temporary working visas
·
Deportation set for EU overstayers
·
Over 1 million job vacancies in the UK
·
Reed Employment website is advertising 300,000
job vacancies
·
100,000 lorry drivers needed in UK, but 400,000
in required in Europe
·
500,000 agricultural and food worker jobs vacant
with few willing takers
As the continuing UK
lorry driver and staffing shortage is forcing the Home Office to fast track
work visas for European workers, some EU nationals living here could be
deported.
EU citizens refused
the right to remain in the UK should leave the country and if they don't,
they will be kicked out, according to a British Government Minister.
Immigration Minister
Kevin Foster told Italian newspaper La Repubblica in an interview published
Saturday that "EU nationals who have been refused status, and who remain
in the country, will be in the UK illegally."
He added: “We expect
people to leave the country voluntarily" and if they do not, immigration
officials "will seek to enforce their departure."
The UK has granted
around 5.4 million EU citizens the right to stay in the country. “As of 31 August
2021, there are around 400,000 applications pending an outcome,” Foster said.
“Those with
reasonable grounds for missing the deadline [to apply to leave to remain in the
UK] are still able to apply,” the minister added. “We have built-in safeguards
to protect those who have not yet applied, but who may still be eligible which
means everybody will be able to get the status they deserve."
However, the country
has been struggling to fill gaps in the labour market, especially in the
trucking and food sectors, which has led to shortages of food on
supermarket shelves, according to the Food and Drink Federation. On Saturday,
the British government confirmed that it’s considering more flexible visa
rules for truckers, according to the Financial Times.
Foster denied that
there is a link between the shortages and immigration. "We do not accept
the points-based system is the key cause of labour shortages in the UK, not
least because we can see similar scarcities across the EU, specifically in
areas like hospitality and truck driving,” he said.
Meanwhile, the
Guardian reports that Home Secretary Priti Patel is refusing to consider allowing
asylum seekers to work following a public intervention from her cabinet
colleague Dominic Raab to say that he would be “open-minded’ about
the proposal.
MPs on both sides of
the house joined refugee charities in a bid to persuade the Home Office to
allow 70,000 current benefit claimants to take up employment after the Justice Secretary
said a rule change could help to solve the UK’s current labour
shortage.
There are currently over
a million job vacancies in Britain. At the same time, over a million people are
claiming unemployment benefit, five million people on universal credit benefit
and another million workers coming off the job retention furlough scheme which
closed at the end of September.
In theory the
country has enough people to fill the job vacancies, but will they have the
right skills?
Temporary work visas
will be issued to 300 overseas fuel drivers "immediately", the
government has just announced.
Under the special
scheme, foreign drivers will be allowed to work in the UK until the end of
March in addition to 4,700 foreign food haulage drivers to be offered work
permits from October to the end of February.
Despite the move, the
government said temporary visas were not a long-term solution and urged firms
to invest in a British workforce.
Ministers have also
extended the length of temporary visas being issued to 5,500 foreign poultry
workers, to head off a shortage of Christmas turkeys in supermarket.
Temporary visas were
previously expected to last until Christmas Eve but have now been extended by a
week until 31 December.
Will the new temporary visas be enough to attract EU
workers?
The answer is, probably not.
Firstly, there is a also shortage of 400,000 drivers
and other workers in Europe.
Secondly, the UK visas are temporary, not
even lasting a year, with no guarantee of a permanent job or long-term
residence. As one Polish employment specialist put it in a TV news interview: “Why
would a skilled HGV driver quit a permanent job to come and work in the UK for
three months?”
Finally, according to many retiring and
former drivers, pay and conditions will need to improve to attract British and
overseas drivers back into lorries.
Unfortunately, haulage prices have been
driven into the ground to satisfy our lust for cheap goods leaving little room
for higher wages.
Increased red tape and government
interference have not helped. It now takes longer than ever to get a driver
licenced and on the road, and HMRC changes to IR35 tax rules have made it
financially unattractive for freelance operators.
Do you want to be dependent on someone else
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New ‘world order’ is here – wake up!
Millions of jobs done by humans will be
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The world of business has changed forever and
unless you adapt your business will decline.
What can you do to take advantage of the
changes rather than hoping things will go back to ‘normal’ again? They won’t.
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#UKvisas #jobvacancy #UKjobs #deportation #immigration
