FT: UK labour fears as migrants go home

Lukasz 49 | 1746

30 Mar 2008 / #1

Financial Times

"Food producers are facing labour shortages as hard working migrant workers are starting to turn their back on Britain and return home, union leaders will warn on Saturday" :

ft.onet.pl/0,8176,uk_labour_fears_as_migrants_go_home,artykul_ft.html

Polish wages rose by 12.8 per cent during the 12 months to the end of February as employers sought to combat skill shortages in industries such as construction , prompting warnings this week that authorities may have to raise Polish interest rates further to stem inflationary pressures in the country.

Farmers have complained that tougher immigration policies will restrict numbers of low skilled workers coming from non EU countries just as the supply of eastern and central Europeans may be starting to dry up.

El Gato 4 | 351

30 Mar 2008 / #2

turn their back on Britain

Right...they're really letting the Brits down. Many of those people wanted them to leave. What the problem is?

I like that they are going back to Poland though. Glad to know they aren't abandoning their country :]

Mister H 11 | 761

30 Mar 2008 / #3

Chris Kaufman, a national secretary responsible for agricultural workers at Unite, Britain’s biggest union, says: “Large numbers of migrant workers from the enlarged EU have been keeping the food industry ticking over for several years, because they have been prepared to work for the exceptionally low wages paid by the industry. But that pool of workers is shrinking, as hard-working migrants return home.”

Then they should pay people a liveable wage to give the workers (whether they be local or not) a fighting chance of surviving.

Grzegorz_ 51 | 6138

30 Mar 2008 / #4

Then they should pay people a liveable wage

And then people like you will choose cheaper foreign products what will ruin their whole business and their workers will lose jobs and will make nothing...

szkotja2007 27 | 1497

30 Mar 2008 / #5

"Food producers are facing labour shortages as hard working migrant workers are starting to turn their back on Britain and return home, union leaders will warn on Saturday" :

This is not news.
The farmers say the same thing year after year, to ensure more work permits are given out.

OP Lukasz 49 | 1746

30 Mar 2008 / #6

The farmers say the same thing year after year, to ensure more work permits are given out.

Main problem was that it was TO MUCH, so now there will be less. I hope tensions will decrease.

A total of 796,000 workers from the 2004 accession countries, two-thirds of them from Poland, have registered to work in the UK since 2004 - far more than the government had expected. But official figures do not reveal how many may have returned home after working only a short while. The Polish embassy has been warning since last summer that the number of Poles returning is close to equalling and by now may have overtaken the numbers arriving in the UK.

Mister H 11 | 761

30 Mar 2008 / #7

And then people like you will choose cheaper foreign products what will ruin their whole business and their workers will lose jobs and will make nothing...

The shops are full of those already and have been for years.

I appreciate that most people (including me) would rather have a rubbish paid job than no job at all.