Are the Numbers of Eastern European Workers Rising?

Posted on: 06.07.2010    09:56:24

Why is it now taking the Workers Registration personnel an average of 6 weeks to process an application as opposed to 10 days in January and February of this year?

Why can you not get a national insurance appointment meeting within 17 days of the time of a telephone call to establish such a meeting? Indeed in certain arrears of the country the wait, can be 2 months, even if you can persuade inflexible bureaucrats to actually grant an appointment.

Is the reduction in service standards which predated the 22 June budget and threats of reductions in public service a function of:

1.   Tight staffing control to reduce the impact of anticipated cuts?
2.   A seasonal increase in workers coming in from Eastern Europe to work in the agricultural sector?
3.   A long term increase in Eastern European workers as employers prefer these workers over taking people from the dole queues?
4.   British employers trying to plug trade skills gaps in areas such as welding, bench joiners, CNC operators?

“There is something very odd going on at the moment” said Chris Slay of Skills Provision a specialist in Eastern European recruitment. “Everybody is silent on the numbers coming in but the empirical evidence of bus/flight accessibility together with the increased processing times by government entities tends to suggest the number of Eastern Europeans coming into the UK increased sharply in the second quarter of 2010.”

 

Author: Peter Arkwright

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