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General Council statement on European migration

Issue date

General Council statement on European migration

adopted 7 September 2006

1) The TUC wants workers to be treated with respect, treated fairly and treated equally, wherever they come from. Government and employers have responsibilities to ensure that people who come to Britain to work are not exploited, and are able to do a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. If migrant workers are treated fairly and paid a decent wage, they represent no threat to the livelihoods of people who are already living and working in the UK, and the work they do and the wages they get for it will pay for the increase in services required to meet the needs of new arrivals. Unions must, and are committed to, play our part in making sure indigenous and migrant workers are treated equally and have their rights respected.

2) The TUC welcomed the extension of the European Union in 2004 to cover eight countries in Eastern Europe, Cyprus and Malta. We further welcome the negotiations for the accession of Bulgaria and Romania. Expanding the European Union is a good thing for Britain because it produces more markets for our goods and services and more people to do the jobs the British economy and society need. And it is good for the people of Eastern Europe because it provides them with growth, better jobs and wages, and spreads and deepens European democratic values. Creating a common market means that workers must have rights as well as businesses, and there must be freedom of movement for workers as well as for capital, goods and services.

3) We note that the accession of Bulgaria and Romania will take place on either 1 January 2007 or 1 January 2008 and that a decision will be taken by the European Council in the autumn. When that decision is taken, Member States will be presented with the opportunity of placing transitional restrictions on the free movement of workers from Bulgaria and Romania to the rest of the EU, though the TUC considers that no persuasive case has been made for such restrictions. Movement by the self-employed cannot, in any event, be restricted.

The economic impact of migration

4) We note also the debate that has taken place this summer in the UK over our experience of the impact of the last accession in 2004. Since then, large numbers of workers from Eastern Europe have entered the UK labour market, although there is little knowledge about how many remain. In general, over that time, employment has grown strongly, although unemployment has recently increased as well, and over the economy as a whole, wage growth has been slow. There are reports of pressure on public services created in particular areas by increased numbers of migrant workers, often with limited English, although it is uncertain how much pressure is being put on services like schools (many of the migrant workers are young adults without dependants) or health services, and how much of the pressure on housing and transport is due to migrant workers. Certainly we would welcome increased funding for investment in the infrastructure of public services that would improve the ability of such services to react, especially to unforeseen and sudden increases in demand and there is a clear need to develop better co-ordination among the agencies providing services to migrants, as work by the Eastern England Development Agency in association with unions and others has shown.

5) The TUC is concerned about indications of rising unemployment, but we note that unemployment has not been rising in the parts of the country where migrant workers have moved to, nor have the skill and labour shortages in the sorts of jobs that migrant workers are doing (eg agriculture, warehousing, construction, personal services and hospitality) disappeared. We do believe that more effort needs to be put into preventing job losses in manufacturing, improving skill levels generally, and tackling unemployment among particular groups at a disadvantage in the labour market. Similarly, the TUC is concerned about displacement of labour from full-time, permanent employment by agency labour, often recruited from Eastern Europe. However, we reject the fallacy that there is a fixed amount of work to go round, and that any increase in the number of working people in a country will automatically increase competition for those jobs. Migrant workers have filled many hard-to-fill vacancies, in some cases vital work in areas of the economy such as education, health, social services, transport in the public sector and in agriculture, construction and hospitality in the private sector. The impact clearly needs to be better understood, and the TUC would welcome moves by the Government to improve our understanding of the impact of migration

6) The TUC also notes the arguments about the slow growth in wages in the economy overall, and the possible attribution of this to migration. We are aware of severe levels of exploitation of some migrant workers, although some of course are well-paid professionals, and others are engaged in industries like the health services and education. There are many accounts of undercutting of normal wage arrangements, especially in construction although this may be the result of self-employment rather than employment. However, there is comparatively little evidence that the number of migrant workers entering the economy has had a direct effect on wage levels as a whole. It may simply be that the growth in employment has been primarily in lower wage employment filled by Eastern European migrants, holding average wage growth down across the economy without affecting the wages of the vast majority of indigenous workers.

7) There has also been considerable debate for some time about the impact of migrant workers on the economy as a whole and on the exchequer. Most of the evidence suggests that migrant workers have a positive impact on the economy - increasing growth rates over the last few years by between 0.5% and 1%, and making a net contribution to the Exchequer. Socially, there have been concerns, often whipped up by racist parties and the right-wing media, about lack of integration and social conflict, but overall the picture seems to be one of migrant workers being welcomed into Britain and valued for their contribution (although we acknowledge that in different economic circumstances, those pressures might well change).

8) The TUC believes that migration so far from Eastern Europe has filled an important gap in a growing labour market and has contributed to the growth of the UK economy in the last few years. The experience has therefore on balance been positive for the UK economy as a whole. Much less attention has been paid to the impact of migration on the labour markets of Eastern Europe and the TUC will be keeping this under review with trade union colleagues in these countries.

Exploitation and fairness at work

9) We are particularly concerned about the way that some migrant workers are exploited. By exploitation we mean outright illegality (pay levels below the minimum wage, unlawful deductions, withholding of passports and so on); immoral treatment (low wages, long hours, sub-standard accommodation, misleading promises, abusive management), and comparative exploitation (lower wages or worse conditions than their fellow workers). Some migrant workers are well-paid or decently treated, but many are not, and it is these workers who we believe need protection.

10) Such exploitation is not necessarily because they are migrant workers (some indigenous workers are exploited as well) but several factors make this more common for migrant workers:

  • lack of knowledge about their rights, and lack of the means to enforce them (although these apply to many indigenous workers too);
  • the tendency for migrant workers to be counted as self-employed with the attendant difficulty of providing protection;
  • language difficulties;
  • their conditions of entry into the UK (eg being recruited by agencies who thrive on lower wages);
  • being away from home (fewer support structures, being separated from their families, temporary nature of their experience); and
  • even some Government policies (restrictions on claiming benefit make it difficult to walk away from exploitative or dangerous work, even where theoretically migrant workers have that right).

11) Although the actual legal status of migrant workers from other EU nations is clear because of the free movement of workers, there can be confusion about what precisely their legal status is, especially when they are self-employed, and these issues are of course particularly a problem for migrant workers from outside the EU. The TUC believes that there should be a rational public debate about how to ensure that migrant workers are engaged in regular legal employment.

12) Examples drawn from one TUC region illustrate the sort of exploitation referred to:

  • Polish and Lithuanian workers engaged for the daffodil season in Cornwall reported that they had been stopped from working for the first few weeks so that they were in debt to the agency for travel, rent and other fees. They were packed eight to each caravan with no heating, and charged £50 a week, including £5 a day transport to get to the field. They were even charged for the elastic bands to tie the flowers. When the police raided the site they found some workers who had been doing 70 hours a week but after all the deductions were left with just 21p.
  • The South West TUC discovered three Polish workers living in the back of a trailer lorry on an abattoir loading bay. When confronted, the employer claimed it was like a palace to them and he didn't know what the fuss was because there was no window for anyone to see in. The skilled bone cutters were paid less than the local workers, abused and denied basic rights.
  • Latvian building workers were being paid £4.50 an hour cash 'off the books' by a Torquay building contractor. When they complained, the builder called the police to 'evict' them from cramped accommodation he was charging them £50 a week each to live in. Before they could collect outstanding pay, workers had to sign agreement not to report builder to press or Inland Revenue. The workers were left homeless, without any rights to employment law or benefits.
  • A farm worker in Somerset was paid £5 an hour (well under the agricultural wages board minimum). The wage did increase to £5.40 (still below the proper rate for the job) but so did the £100 a month rent. Electricity and other fees were deducted from pay. He worked for over a year but was not allowed to take holidays.
  • Workers at a distribution depot in Avonmouth were told that they were not entitled to take a Bank Holiday because they were Polish.

13) There are, traditionally, three ways in which workers' rights can be improved. Firstly, they can be given more and better rights at work; secondly more can be done to encourage the implementation and enforcement of those rights; and thirdly, they can act collectively to improve their position - the latter avenue is dealt with in the next section.

14) In terms of stronger rights at work, the TUC welcomed the Gangmasters' Licensing Act as a key measure to assist migrant workers (and others) to resist exploitation. But much more is needed, such as:

  • the adoption of an EU Directive on Temporary Agency Workers. Comparators between agency staff and permanent employees need to be enforceable from day one. Exclusions of areas like pension rights from such comparisons could provide a massive loop-hole for exploitation and undercutting;
  • the scope of the Gangmasters Act needs to be extended to provide a broader licensing regime across the economy - not just agriculture, horticulture, gathering shellfish and food processing;
  • there needs to be effective implementation in UK law of the Posted Workers Directive, especially to ensure that posted workers' pay etc is determined by existing national level agreements;
  • the territorial scope of UK employment rights needs to be clarified and this area of abuse closed down; and
  • the extension of employment rights to all workers (rather than solely employees as is the case in some laws) and tightening up on bogus self-employment.

15) Of course, improvements in the law will not on their own improve conditions for migrant workers. The laws must be enforced, and employers should be encouraged to implement them in spirit as well as to the letter. More enforcement of existing rules could mean more government inspection (health and safety, minimum wages) or self-enforcement: support for unionisation, community groups and welfare advice services, better language training and translation of key information. The TUC supports a substantial expansion in the provision of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). There could be substantial fines and/or custodial sentences for employers when they consistently do not comply with the requirements of employment law. There should be measures to discourage the development of an informal sector, with dubious self-employment, persistent temporary contracts, hiring by the day and so on. There should be a ban on those agencies who employ workers solely on bogus self employed status from winning government contracts.

16) In Ireland, the government, unions and employers have reached a new social partnership, Towards 2016, which includes a number of measures designed to protect the rights of both migrant and indigenous workers, such as:

  • the establishment of a new Office of Employment Rights Compliance (ODERC) with an increase from 21 to 90 in the number of Labour Inspectors in addition to new support posts, allowing for joint investigation units to target serious abuses of employment standards;
  • the tax system will be reformed to prevent people in the building industry and elsewhere from being forced into bogus self employed status to allow employers to avoid pension contributions etc;
  • employers will be obliged to keep accurate employment records in a prescribed format for inspection by the Labour Inspectors;
  • there will be a new Employment Rights procedure to allow easier access to justice and with compensation where rights are denied. Powers to award up to two years pay by way of compensation is a very significant change and will help many migrant workers whose cases are usually about bread and butter issues like payment of correct wages;
  • in effect, the exploitation and abuse of workers is now a de facto criminal offence;
  • new standards of compliance with labour law in order to tender for public procurement contracts - in other words, the taxpayer will no longer subsidise exploitation or sharp employment practices;
  • legislation to regulate employment agencies and educational establishments to prevent them from undermining employment standards and immigration law;
  • legislative changes to prevent Irish Ferries type collective redundancies and 'Gate Gourmet' type unfair dismissals; and
  • a code of practice to protect people working as domestic servants.

17) The TUC intends seeking discussions with the Government about this important Irish initiative and ways to strengthen the rights of people at work so that exploitation is eradicated.

Union action

18) As indicated above, collective action by and on behalf of migrant workers is a key component in combating exploitation. Unions are increasingly engaged in ensuring equal treatment for migrant workers, whether through agreements with employers, the use of supply chains, or the provision of information and services tailored to migrant workers' needs, as the following examples show:

  • the T&G made Sainsbury's and Tesco aware this July of examples of bad practice at S&A Produce at their Brook Farm, Herefordshire strawberry farm. Their intervention helped persuade the employers to enter into talks with the union, where agreement has so far been reached on dropping charges for basic medical services and providing accommodation for workers overnight at the end of their contract (not all problems have yet been resolved);
  • at London Luton Airport last autumn, the T&G discovered that baggage handlers brought in by an agency from Poland were being paid around £2 an hour less than the ground staff employed by Big Orange Handling, which is a jointly owned venture between easyJet and Menzies. The T&G threatened strike action unless the issue was resolved and the Polish workers won an immediate pay increase to bring them up to the same level as the permanent employees;
  • similarly, the T&G stepped in when local stewards in Exeter discovered the problems being faced by Polish agency workers at a meat processing company. These included worse employment conditions than British workers, and housing which put ten workers into a two bedroom property with rent of £40 per person per week, payable to the agency. With assistance from the Federation of Poles in Britain, the T&G got the contract with the agency terminated and all the agency workers taken on as direct employees;
  • an USDAW rep won the TUC Midlands Regional Union Learning Representative of the Year award after Project Troika, ESOL courses for small groups of migrant workers, was launched by the union and management at the Christian Salvesen service and returns centre in Lutterworth. The turnover of new starters at the vehicle service and returns facility where more than 70% of workers come from all across the globe - including Eastern Europe - has fallen from 80% to 18%;
  • when Unison in Scotland discovered that twelve nurses had paid £500 each to St George's Recruitment Agency to get placed in employment with the NHS - payments which are unlawful in the Philippines - they worked with the Philippines government to take legal action against the agency. Unison has set up an Overseas Nurses Network in Scotland;
  • GMB Midland and East Coast Region, in partnership with Prospects Services Ltd, won an award for its project, Reaching Out to New Communities which responded to the increasing number of people coming to the region from Eastern Europe and Portugal. The main focus of the project was to enable migrant workers to learn English and thus learn about their rights, but it also involved the development of a Handbook containing practical advice. The Handbook was developed for the GMB by two young people who are themselves from Eastern Europe, and it is available in English, Polish and Lithuanian; and
  • a number of unions have started to use workers from the migrant communities to recruit and represent them. Last year, Polish union confederation Solidarnosc seconded an organiser to the North West TUC to develop contact between Polish workers and trade unions in the region. The T&G has begun to employ Polish workers (and British born Polish speakers) as organisers to recruit and represent Polish migrant workers in the construction and food processing industries, and UCATT has recruited Polish workers who speak English as reps on large sites in the North East.

19) Unions need to continue to develop and strengthen initiatives aimed at recruiting, organising and representing migrant workers. Links with local communities inside the UK, and also with trade union movements in Eastern Europe, can be particularly helpful in making contact between unions and migrants, and in this context, the TUC has been developing closer links (often on specific projects such as the EU-funded ICICLE project which dealt with the implementation of information and consultation regulations) with Bulgarian and Romanian trade union confederations, as well as stepping up links with Turkish trade union confederations (the ETUC has covered all three countries for some time).

Conclusions

20) The TUC will continue to support stronger employment rights for migrant workers to ensure that they are treated equally with indigenous workers, and as more migrant workers enter the UK labour market, the need for such rights becomes ever stronger. Unions must also continue to strengthen their capacity to recruit, organise and represent migrant workers. The TUC supports the free movement of workers in the European Union, and believes that where there is a single market, and increasingly a single labour market, there must be EU-wide regulation of that labour market.

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