Immigration Experts Says UK Employers Must Be Innovative To Prevent A Skills Shortage

Immigration experts at national law firm Irwin Mitchell say that the triggering of Article 50 should serve as a wake-up call to UK employers who are facing a potential skills shortage due to Brexit.

Today, the Prime Minister triggered Article 50 and met the Government’s self-imposed deadline of March 31^st. This means that Brexit negotiations must be completed within two years, unless an extension is agreed.

The number of EU workers entering the UK has fallen since the Brexit vote, prompting many UK businesses to voice their concerns over the potential impact of Brexit negotiations on UK employment and immigration.

Earlier this month, Pret a Manger’s director of human resources, Andrea Wareham, told a parliamentary committee that only one in 50 applicants to the company are British.

Media has reported that, Wareham told the committee that 65% of the high street chain’s workforce comes from EU countries other than Britain and stressed that the firm would struggle to find enough staff if it were forced to turn its back on EU nationals post Brexit.

Recent labour market data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that whilst EU nationals are still entering the UK, the numbers doing so, have reduced.

In the three months following the Brexit vote in June 2016, the number of non UK, EU nationals working in the UK has halves from an average of over 60,000 per quarter to only 30,000 per quarter.

Immigration expert Padma Tadi, an Associate at Irwin Mitchell, said both the Government and business leaders must find creative and innovative solutions to change attitude towards work by UK nationals in order to make jobs usually filled by EU workers more attractive to them.

Expert Opinion

We’ve already seen a drop in EU workers in the UK since the referendum but the worry is that that trend will continue now the Brexit process has officially begun, with little guidance as to what protections are likely to be in place for EU workers remaining or wanting to enter the UK. The food supply chain, manufacturing, healthcare and hospitality are sectors that heavily rely on workers from the EU because such jobs are unattractive to UK nationals.

Triggering Article 50 is likely to require UK employers to urgently devise incentives to entice UK nationals to work in roles they currently seem unwilling to do and for which we heavily rely on EU workers to fulfil.

Perhaps the Government should target school leavers and promote opportunities to rise up the ranks in such less desirable industries.

With the advent of the apprenticeship levy in May 2017, the timing could not be better for large employers to start thinking about creating apprenticeship opportunities, in the hope that the structure that they can offer will make the roles more appealing to UK workers.
Padma Tadi-Booth - Partner

Padma Tadi, an Associate at Irwin Mitchell, advises businesses and individuals about employment and immigration issues relating to Brexit.