Contractor Industry Responds To Immigration Cap

The Government this week announced their plans for an immigration cap, which has led a number of contractor industry groups to respond. The plans mean that there will be a cap of 21,700 skilled workers from outside the EU allowed into the UK, a cut of 6,300. However, this excludes employees transferred by UK companies from abroad.

These highly skilled workers will be allowed to stay for up to five years as long as their salary exceeds £40,000. Firms will also be able to transfer IT staff, on salaries of over £24,000, to the UK for up to a year.

Home Secretary Theresa May has said that this means immigration will become “sustainable” and David Cameron believes the cap will be “business friendly”, but Labour called the plans “a con”.

The PCG have been campaigning on intra company transfer (ICT) permits for a while, arguing that the permits allowed large multi-national companies to transfer large numbers of low skilled IT workers, instead of just their senior staff. The PCG believed that this abuse undercut contractors and freelance workers in the UK.

Simon McVicker, PCG Head of Public Affairs, said;

“PCG welcomes and strongly supports the Home Secretary’s new measures on these permits. We have been campaigning on this issue for many years to no avail and these new rules represent a huge change in the status quo.  A minimum salary of £40,000 is a massive increase, where previously ICTs were often being accepted into the UK on half this salary, undercutting UK IT contractors. This will ensure freelancers really do have fair access to the market for their services.”

The REC had also previously raised concerns over the cap, as they believe some sectors have a need for skilled overseas workers. Tom Hadley, the REC’s Director of Policy, believes that “ICTs have an important role to play and cutting this facility would be a major disincentive for global businesses to set up in the UK.”

Mr McVicker, of the PCG, finished by saying, “The big abusers of ICT permits will not be in high spirits today, but for PCG this represents the culmination of many years of work on this issue. Our hard work and the hard work of our members campaigning for change has clearly paid off.”