News
UK IT contractors replaced with cut price overseas workers
30 July, 2009
Due to BT’s 31% stake in an Indian technology firm and a loophole in the work permit system, they have been able to lay off UK IT contractors and replace them with Indian nationals. This may not come as a huge surprise to contractors who have worked on projects where outsourced workers are imported from overseas, at far lower rates.
In a discussion between BBC/File on 4 Producer and Contractor Eye a few weeks ago, it was said that the programme sought real examples of how UK jobs have been lost to the Intra-Company Transfer system, rather than relying on the copious amounts of anecdotal evidence.
Apparently an ex-contractor from BT’s troubled Global Services Unit, had told the producer that many of the contractors recently laid off by BT have been replaced by Indian workers who were paid nearly half the market rate for their skills. The contractor said that the replacement workers were supplied by Tech Mahindra, an Indian company in which BT Global Services has a 31% stake.
While it is not thought that BT have broken any rules by hiring workers via its subsidiary, many in the UK recruitment industry fear that Intra-Company Transfer rules are being abused to the detriment of home-grown IT workers.
According to a report on Contractor Eye in May 2009, APSCo called on the Government to close the loophole which allows companies to hire non-EU workers without having to advertise the vacancies first in the UK.
The PCG has also launched an evidence gathering campaign following concern that abuses of the work permit rules have been taking place, particularly in the IT industry.