1612 GMT London Friday 30 January 2009
From the web site of the London GUARDIAN Friday 30 Jan 2009
Analysis
Brown's British jobs promise was doomed from the start
Our EU membership means the PM could only ever pledge British jobs for European workers
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 January 2009 14.46 GMT
Article history
Gordon Brown speaking at the Labour party conference in 2007. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA
The Lincolnshire oil refinery strikers who quote Gordon Brown's promise of "British jobs for British workers" to justify their anger at an Italian company bringing in Italian and Portuguese staff to work on a £200m contract can be forgiven for wondering why it hasn't been delivered.
At least one cabinet minister – Hilary Benn – said they are entitled to an answer, but the truth is that even when Brown made the promise in his 2007 Labour conference speech, the reality was he could only create British jobs for European workers.
This is because under Britain's points-based immigration system that came into force in November, an employer can only recruit migrant labour to a job that is not on the official list of shortage occupations if they first go through the resident labour market test. This means they have to show that no suitably qualified settled worker can fill the job. In practice, this requires them to advertise it in a trade journal, national press or local jobcentre for a set period of time. Jobs with salaries of under £40,000 have to be advertised for a minimum of two weeks.
This all sounds robust and the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, promised only two weeks ago to make it even tougher by making it compulsory to advertise the vacancy through a jobcentre. But while she promised British jobs for British workers, she failed to mention that the "resident" part of the resident market labour test doesn't just cover those settled in Britain but applies to anyone who is a national of a European Union country.
The Italians and Portuguese working at Lindsey and, for that matter, the Spanish contractors working at Staythorpe power station in Newark, where protests have been going on since October, all pass the resident labour market test.
Our EU membership means we have signed up to a single labour market and Italians and Poles no longer qualify as foreign workers. Ministers say extra investment in education and training is aimed at ensuring British workers are best placed to get those new British jobs. But it is clear the rules do not allow other Europeans to be excluded from them.
Gordon Brown should have told the Labour conference he was going to create British jobs for European workers, but that wouldn't have gone down quite so well.
How can the oil refinery jobs not be open to local Lincolnshire workers?
The government says the Italian company IREM, which has brought its own Italian and Portuguese skilled staff to do the oil refinery job, is acting within the rules as laid down by the EU posted workers directive.
This allows a European company to employ its own staff on a temporary project in another EU member state. The only conditions under this directive are that the contract is time-limited and the employer meets local working regulations – for example, they must pay at least the minimum wage.
This directive was introduced in 1996 to improve labour mobility in Europe, and would have been ratified by John Major's Conservative government. About 1 million posted workers, or 4% of the Europe's workforce, work under the directive.
The oil company Total, which operates the Lindsey power station, claims that all of the 400 IREM staff are to be paid under the same terms and conditions agreed with unions for the existing contractor workforce. They say these are additional jobs and no redudancies are anticipated as a result of the new contract.
The unions say there is enough unemployed skilled labour available locally to do the jobs. The company says it prefers to use its own experienced and settled labour force, as it is entitled to within the EU rules.
Downing Street said this morning that the contracts at Lindsey were awarded some time ago when there were skill shortages in the construction sector and that this was no longer the case, hinting they are possibly looking for ways around the EU directive.
Is this a new wave of recession-related militancy or the work of Britain-first agitators?
This is not the first demonstration outside a British power station over the use of European workers. A long-running dispute has been going on at Staybridge power station in Newark, Nottinghamshire, where a Spanish company was brought in by the German engineering company Alsthom to install a boiler and turbine.
The local MP, Patrick Mercer, has already warned that there are local far-right extremists at work using the slogan "British jobs for British workers" to exploit the situation. The Unite union says 60% of Britain's power stations will have to be replaced over the next few years and it wants steps taken to make sure the Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire situations are not repeated.
This appears to be an industry-specific dispute over alleged shortages of highly skilled engineers, exacerbated by the economic insecurites of the downturn, rather than the first signs of a French-style general revolt against the inequities of the recession.
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More analysis
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Gallery: Protests at the Total Lindsey oil refinery
Gregor Gall: Now is the winter of our discontent
Map of protests (pdf)
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