The recent controversy over zero-hours contracts employed by firms such as Sports Direct has opened the floor to a flood of employment-related issues. Subjects such as the role of working mothers in the workplace and underemployment have been the subject of much discussion in the past month, with British workers claiming that the unemployment figures released by the ONS do not paint an accurate picture of the working climate today.
A late night delivery for Tesco workers
Now, political party Labour has added another dimension into the mix by claiming that some firms are passing over British workers in favour of cheaper eastern European employees. Two of the companies accused of this practice by shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant are Tesco and Next, whom he has called “unscrupulous employers.”
In a speech given on Monday, Mr Bryant claimed that Tesco opened a new plant in the south-east of England and therefore closed the original, smaller distribution centre operating in the area. However, existing staff were told that, should they wish to take on positions in the new commercial property, they would have to accept a cut in wages.
Many British workers refused the new terms, leaving Tesco to seek employees who would work for the lower rate of pay. As a result, there is now a higher percentage of “Eastern bloc” staff working at the new centre.
However, Tesco refutes this claim, saying; “It is wrong to accuse Tesco of this.
“We work incredibly hard to recruit from the local area, and have just recruited 350 local people to work in our Dagenham site.”
Similarly, Mr Bryant cites the example of Next bringing in 500 Polish workers as temporary workers during its summer sale last year, with a further 300 being taken on this year. These workers were all based at the chain’s warehouse in South Elmsall, West Yorkshire – one of the areas in the country where unemployment remains a very real problem for local residents.
Yet while Next confirmed that it had hired workers from abroad, it claims that this was due to an inability to find sufficient numbers of temporary workers in the local area.
In a statement, Next continues; “Mr Bryant also makes the false claim that the use of Polish workers enables Next to avoid agency working regulations.
“For clarity, the nationality of workers in no way affects their rights under agency workers regulations, a fact Mr Bryant should be aware of.”
A separate report published by the TUC highlights the fact that, in the two years to December 2012, the number of workers categorised as “temporary” rose by 89,000 to 1,650,000. This equates to 46 per cent of the total rise in employment, and coincided with a drop in the number of UK employees on fixed-term contracts.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady says; “The fact that casualised labour continues to grow even during this ‘so-called’ recovery suggests that the labour market is far more fragile than headline figures suggest.”
With British workers still struggling to achieve job security and gain full-time employment, it appears that the unemployment crisis is not as “resolved” as government figures suggest.
Do you think firms should be penalised for hiring from overseas instead of recruiting locally?
