Contractors - Sign this petition please....

[Nagra]

This petition is to abolish the 'Intra Company Transfer' work permits scheme immediately.

This scheme allows companies to bypass UK immigration rules and import non-EU workers into the UK, displacing UK/EU staff. This scheme bypasses other schemes such as the skilled migrants points system, which work fairly based on national need and individual migrants skills. This is allowing the displacement of tens of thousands of workers, particulary in IT. It is unfair on UK (and EU) workers as these shipped in workers enjoy tax (and often accomodation) benefits not available to workers living in the UK due to the local cost of living and tax regime.


Information on the petition....

http://www.contractoruk.com/news/004501.html



Link to the petition…

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Abolish-ICTs/

[Eric Mc]

How many non-EU workers are there here "taking" UK workers' jobs?

[zippy3x]

Eric Mc said:

How many non-EU workers are there here "taking" UK workers' jobs?

"British employers in need of IT expertise last year imported non-European workers into the UK at twice the rate of all other types of professional skills combined.

Despite the downturn creating an ample supply of settled UK IT staff, almost 30,000 computer workers from outside of the European Union were brought to the country in 2008.

In fact, by using intra-company transfers (ICTs), which let UK employers transfer their overseas staff to their UK office, 29, 240 foreign IT workers were successfully imported.

This is more than double the number - 14,255 - of staff who entered the UK on ICTs last year to work in all the other professional service sectors, including telecoms, combined. "

[Eric Mc]

Where are they coming from?

[zippy3x]

India primarily

[TooLateForAName]

Most seems to be from the large indian services companies. My experience is that they have underskilled people paid very little.

[Thats how I roll]

Unfortunately the Intra-company transfer work permit caters for a lot more than just susceptible industries like IT; my employer is a global energy service provider and we'd be screwed if we didn't have the I-CT. We need to be able to move people around the world (and into the UK) as quickly as possible. The OP's plight sounds like something that should be taken up with individual companies/management boards, not the UKBA.

[Thurbs]

We may use the scheme to bring some high performing individuals over from India for a year or tw, so no thanks OP, I wont sign your petition.

[zippy3x]

If it's being used to bring in Specific people with specific skills then fine.
This seems to be the case in most industries.

However in IT it's just being abused to bring in cheap labour.

[Eric Mc]

And....?

Do you object to being served by a Brazilian waitress or having your house being redecorated by aN Albanian plasterer or taking your medicine from a Philipino nurse?

[Deva Link]

Eric Mc said:

And....?

Do you object to being served by a Brazilian waitress or having your house being redecorated by aN Albanian plasterer or taking your medicine from a Philipino nurse?

Yes, actually. You don't seem to get the non-local workers in hotels and restaurants in the rest of Europe to anything like the extent you do in the UK, and the amount of foreign workers at all levels in the NHS is ridiculous both for reasons of employing British people and that we're stealing other countries health workers.

[Thats how I roll]

Deva Link said:

Eric Mc said:

And....?

Do you object to being served by a Brazilian waitress or having your house being redecorated by aN Albanian plasterer or taking your medicine from a Philipino nurse?

Yes, actually. You don't seem to get the non-local workers in hotels and restaurants in the rest of Europe to anything like the extent you do in the UK, and the amount of foreign workers at all levels in the NHS is ridiculous both for reasons of employing British people and that we're stealing other countries health workers.

So? There's nothing stopping a Brit worker from going abroad and getting a job they're not getting here (apart from the British adversity to learning a foreign language).

[Deva Link]

Thats how I roll said:

Deva Link said:

Eric Mc said:

And....?

Do you object to being served by a Brazilian waitress or having your house being redecorated by aN Albanian plasterer or taking your medicine from a Philipino nurse?

Yes, actually. You don't seem to get the non-local workers in hotels and restaurants in the rest of Europe to anything like the extent you do in the UK, and the amount of foreign workers at all levels in the NHS is ridiculous both for reasons of employing British people and that we're stealing other countries health workers.

So? There's nothing stopping a Brit worker from going abroad and getting a job they're not getting here (apart from the British adversity to learning a foreign language).

OK.

[deckster]

Thats how I roll said:

Deva Link said:

Eric Mc said:

And....?

Do you object to being served by a Brazilian waitress or having your house being redecorated by aN Albanian plasterer or taking your medicine from a Philipino nurse?

Yes, actually. You don't seem to get the non-local workers in hotels and restaurants in the rest of Europe to anything like the extent you do in the UK, and the amount of foreign workers at all levels in the NHS is ridiculous both for reasons of employing British people and that we're stealing other countries health workers.

So? There's nothing stopping a Brit worker from going abroad and getting a job they're not getting here (apart from the British adversity to learning a foreign language).

Just to get this straight then. We are agreed that the ICT scheme is being abused to bring in low-paid, generic IT workers - many of whom are on exceedingly tax-efficient packages which consist mainly of 'living expenses' - at a time when there are many skilled British people struggling to find work (the evidence for this is easy to find, just look on any of the IT contractor sites). Let's be quite clear here, there is no IT skills shortage in the UK any more, it's very much the opposite right now.

Your answer to this would be to uproot my family, take the kids from school, ask my wife to leave her job, move abroad and get a job...where? Alternatively, we could stop this wholesale abuse and restrict it to genuinely key employees who actually bring useful skills that are difficult to replicate within the UK arm of any given company.

[zippy3x]

Eric Mc said:

And....?

Do you object to being served by a Brazilian waitress or having your house being redecorated by aN Albanian plasterer or taking your medicine from a Philipino nurse?

No - you're right - we should just open the flood gates shouldn't we? Allow unchecked immigration? Do you think this is a good idea?

I'm aware that the petition seeks to end ICT's, which I don't agree with, but it's being used as a loophole to bypass the countries immigration quotas (such as they are).

[AndrewW-G]

Eric Mc said:

And....?

Do you object to being served by a Brazilian waitress or having your house being redecorated by aN Albanian plasterer or taking your medicine from a Philipino nurse?

I'd never complain about using somebody cheaper, thats why I use a firm of accountants in India who are fully conversant with UK tax law and cost a third of the price of a bean counter over here. Would recomend it to everybody

[zippy3x]

AndrewW-G said:

Eric Mc said:

And....?

Do you object to being served by a Brazilian waitress or having your house being redecorated by aN Albanian plasterer or taking your medicine from a Philipino nurse?

I'd never complain about using somebody cheaper, thats why I use a firm of accountants in India who are fully conversant with UK tax law and cost a third of the price of a bean counter over here. Would recomend it to everybody

ooooh - do you have a contact number - i'm sick of paying 700 quid a year for someone to subtract one column from another.

[AndrewW-G]

zippy3x said:

AndrewW-G said:

Eric Mc said:

And....?

Do you object to being served by a Brazilian waitress or having your house being redecorated by aN Albanian plasterer or taking your medicine from a Philipino nurse?

I'd never complain about using somebody cheaper, thats why I use a firm of accountants in India who are fully conversant with UK tax law and cost a third of the price of a bean counter over here. Would recomend it to everybody

ooooh - do you have a contact number - i'm sick of paying 700 quid a year for someone to subtract one column from another.

Will PM it over when I get home

[zippy3x]

AndrewW-G said:

zippy3x said:

AndrewW-G said:

Eric Mc said:

And....?

Do you object to being served by a Brazilian waitress or having your house being redecorated by aN Albanian plasterer or taking your medicine from a Philipino nurse?

I'd never complain about using somebody cheaper, thats why I use a firm of accountants in India who are fully conversant with UK tax law and cost a third of the price of a bean counter over here. Would recomend it to everybody

ooooh - do you have a contact number - i'm sick of paying 700 quid a year for someone to subtract one column from another.

Will PM it over when I get home

was only joking - I'm already off-shoring (Glasgow). They're good at what they do - but you can't understand them on the phone

[plasticpig]

I can't see that it is unfair at all. Not to contractors anyway. If you are a UK employee being replaced it's a diffrent matter. But a contractor is running a business and if they can't beat or match the costs of an internal transfer within a company then they should look for alternative business.