The government have announced a consultation to create new legislation which will prohibit the advertising of jobs exclusively in other EEA countries.
This is an interesting development as there has been recent controversy in the media regarding some companies exclusively advertising jobs to other EEA nationals while not offering those same jobs to the UK market.
This week's Channel 4 Dispatches programme covered the issue and claimed that some large, established companies had even set up recruitment offices in Lisbon solely to recruit Portuguese staff. They even had an advertisement on the homepage of their website in Portuguese for such prospective workers, asking them to visit the recruitment office in Lisbon if they were interested in employment. Worryingly, this same company had a message in English on their homepage saying that no job vacancies were available.
When contacted by Dispatches, the company in question claimed the advertisement in Portuguese was an error and that their recruitment office in Lisbon was no longer in operation. However, a worker with a secret camera revealed that the majority of staff were from Portugal or other EEA countries and were being exploited, especially around zero-hours contracts and bad working conditions. The foreign workers claimed that they would put up with such conditions due to chronic unemployment in their homeland which is why they were favoured for employment.
It would appear that such a practice has become quite widespread which is why this new government consultation is welcomed. Of course, due to open worker borders in the EEA, it is important to encourage other EEA nationals to come and work in the UK if this is their desire. Equally, it is vital that such jobs are also advertised to UK citizens, especially when we are still in times of austerity and many people cannot find work despite their best efforts.
For more information on the consultation visit:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/recruitment-sector-prohibiting-the-advertising-of-jobs-exclusively-in-other-eea-countries
