Tuesday, 24 July 2007

New Figures Are The Tip Of The Iceberg Of Migrant Exploitation

In response to newly released figures revealing 713,000 foreign nationals applied for a National Insurance number last year, construction union UCATT have warned that Government policies deny migrant workers standard employment protections and are creating massive levels of exploitation.

Parliamentary questions asked by UCATT’s group of MPs reveal that last year 76,000 people applied for a temporary CIS4 (construction industry scheme) card allowing them to work bogus self-employed. Workers do not need a national insurance number to hold a temporary CIS4 card. The vast majority of those applying for a temporary card for the scheme operated by the Inland Revenue are migrant workers from Eastern Europe.

Although workers on CIS4 are legally considered self-employed the vast majority in reality are directly employed usually for just one employer. However their self-employed status means that they do not have employment rights. Making them highly vulnerable to exploitative bosses, low pay, punitive deductions and excessive hours.

The situation for Romanian and Bulgarian migrant workers is even bleaker as they are not by law allowed to be directly employed. Forcing them to be self-employed makes them even more vulnerable to exploitation.

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, said: “Many sections of the British economy need migrant workers, including construction because of skills and labour shortages. However the lack of employment protections afforded these new workers has led to high levels of exploitation by cynical bosses. Meanwhile in some areas domestic workers have become resentful, fearing that new workers are undercutting pay and conditions, when their anger should be directed at the employers.”

Mr Ritchie, added: “The Government needs to do far more to monitor levels of migration and to ensure that vulnerable workers are not routinely abused. Previously, the Government has simply failed to sufficiently protect workers.”