01.06.08 – Britain Can’t Afford to Lose its Poles – Poland Monthly
Britain Can’t Afford to lose its Poles
Britain Can’t Afford to Lose its Poles
A secure relationship between Polish employees and British employers is a must today, says Andrzej Tutkaj
I was asked to write this opinion piece some three months ago, but events havemoved on so quickly that anything I might have written three months ago would now be seriouslyout of date.
The topic I have been asked to write about is the Poland migrant issue and the impact it may have on both the British economy and society as a whole. I myself, as a Federation of Poles activist, have been heavily involved in the Polish migrant issue since about 2003. Indeed, I even undertook an 18 monthstint working with the Polish homeless in the Victoria area and had the nerve in early 2006 to speak out in the Spectator magazine “Misery of the PolishNewcomers” January 2006 about the difficulties that the established Polish community in Britain were having coping with the “new wave” immigrants.
If I had written this article about four months ago, I would have been bitterly complaining about the headlines in the Daily Mail, such as “Immigrants here for Good:Half of Poles Plan to Stay in UK” on 11 October 2007; “Revealed: 750,000 Migrants fromEastern Europe have come to work in Britain in just 3 years” on 20
November 2007 or “A Migrant arrested every 4 minutes in the UK” in Daily Express on 11 February 2008. Indeed this relentless barrage from the Daily Mail and Daily Express became too much to take for the established UK Polish community, which eventually resulted in a formal complaint being made to the Press Complaints Commission against the Daily Mail by the Federation of Poles in Great Britain.
It now seems as though everything has now turned full circle. Indeed the Daily Mail was one of the first newspapers to follow the new trend with an article entitled “Now Poles begin Mass Desertion of Britain as Soaring Prices send them home” 16 February 2008. There were similar headlines in theTimes on 16 February
2008 “Tide Turns as Poles end great migration”, as well as “Failing UK losing its PolesWednesday,”Metro February 13, 2008, “UK labour fears as migrants go home—Financial Times on 28 March 2008. “The brain drain: What if all the Poles went home?”, Independent 29 April 2008.
The Governer of the Bank of England, Mervyn King had previously stated that “the inflow of migrant labour, especially in the past year or so from Eastern Europe, has probably led to a diminution of inflationary pressure in the labour market relative to previous experience.”
How does this leave Britain today? If I was a fruit farmer I would be seriously worried, since the plentiful supply of cheap labour to pick strawberries and apples is quickly drying up. The consequences will mean that several farms which have mainly relied on seasonal labour will indeed go bust. The days of plentiful supply of cheap EU migrant labour are gone and those industries that have relied on seasonal migrant workers will be the first casualties.
So much for Gordon Ramsey exalting the virtues of home grown produce but at the same time conveniently forgetting that this same produce was probably picked by the now dwindling supply of migrant labour. Indeed, The Independent on 12 May 2008 stated that this summer farmers face losing 50,000 tonnes of fruit due to a shortage of foreign pickers. What is more serious are the catastrophic implications to the housing market, if buy to let landlords suddenly find their rooms empty.
It is also important to note that most of the Poles who have arrived in Britain arehere to work, generally save a very high proportion of theirmoney and are hence less vulnerable to the “credit crunch” that is now starting to take its toll in the UK.
What should British policymakers do? They should first of all make every effort to encourage Poles to stay. The agency workers and zero hour contract schemes only really work when there is a greater supply of labour compared to actual jobs to be filled. The recent government announcement allegedly giving agency workers the same rights as permanent employees is short- sighted and also still discriminatory, since this right only comes into force after 12 weeks and does not cover pensions and sick pay entitlement.
If this very pool of labour starts drying up and the process goes into reverse, the consequences for the economy will be calamitous. Farms will no longer be able to produce, factories will shut down and buy-to-let homes will become empty.
It is now in Britain’s interest to finally fully sign up to the EU Agency Workers directive and make a stronger and more secure relationship between Polish workers to their employers, rather than be permanently avoiding the prospect of employer-employee stability for all.
Poles account for 250 of the 390 employees at Strathaird Salmon, a fish processing firm based in Inverness. What would happen to this particular firm if the Poles suddenly decided to leave?
What the British government needs to face up to is that there are now approximately one million Poles in Britain and they are mainly working hard in the economy, supporting key sections of British industry. A British publicity campaign should now be launched, encouraging Poles to stay, thus trying to counteract the damage caused by the relentless anti-Polish press barrage. Further consideration should be made to the still discriminatory agency workers and zero contract terms of employment schemes to be completely abolished, giving all Polish agency workers the same working conditions as full time employees.
President Sarkozy’s announcement in May that France will fully open its labour market to Poles from 1 July 2008 also means that there will now be more competition for Polish labour and it is inevitable that some Poles will indeed consider moving from the UK to France.
Poles should be, therefore, given the impression that they very much welcome to stay in Britain permanently.
If the Poles do leave, then they will be very very difficult to replace.
Andrzej Tutkaj is a Federation of Poles activist who was involved in helping Polish migrants in Britain in 2004-2006. He runs small claims management company in London