IT service providers from overseas are bending
immigration rules to provide offshore services by stealth as
thousands of IT workers join dole queues, it was claimed
today.
Figures on the total UK job cuts and statistics on the number of
jobs offshored disguise the true extent of UK IT jobs being carried
out by foreign workers, according to an industry body.
The Association of Professional Staffing Companies, which
represents UK recruitment agencies, said that in reality, UK jobs
were being filled by overseas IT staff brought over to the UK on
temporary visas.
According to analysis carried out by the Financial Times
just over 4,000 jobs have been cut since July last year as a result
of UK businesses offshoring work. This is small compared to the
700,000 total redundancies during that period.
But this can disarm UK workers into thinking there are more
opportunities for them when in fact companies are using the
'intra-company transfers' to bring workers into the UK. An
intra-company transfer could allow, for example, an Indian IT
services provider with a UK division to bring IT staff over for
three years without a Visa.
One corporate lawyer said this practice is being used by all
offshore service providers. The problem is not about jobs being cut
in favour of offshoring, but jobs not being made available to UK
workers in the first place, he said.
"In 2008, tens of thousands of people were granted permission to
work in the UK through intra-company transfers," he added.
About 29,000 of these were from India.
"If you are an Indian IT supplier and you have a major project
starting, as long as the Indian IT professionals have worked for 12
months, they can come to the UK without a Visa for three
years."
According to
data obtained by Apsco from the Home Office under the Freedom
of Information Act, 35,430 non-EU IT workers came to work in the UK
last year. This compared to 12,726 during the dotcom boom in 2000.
Most of these were low to mid-level workers, which goes against the
grain of why this system was set up.
Ann Swain, chief executive of Apsco, said these suppliers are
"taking the mickey".
"The intra-company transfer system was originally set up for
high-level executives that were crucial to companies over
here."
But she said this is being abused. She called for the system to
be "policed properly".