Bulgarians and Romanians right to work restricted
On the 1st January 2007 the European union will welcome a further 30 million citizens into it’s fold, taking its total population to 486 million and the number of Member States from 25 to 27.
Workers from the 10 new countries that joined the EU in 2004 were allowed unrestricted access to the UK labour market. In an about turn by the Home Office, Bulgarian and Romanian nationals will not automatically be allowed to work in the UK when the two countries join the European Union on the 1st of January 2007. Home Office Minister Liam Byrne announced that the UK labour market will only be opened gradually to citizens from Bulgaria and Romania.
From the date of accession, Romanians and Bulgarians will have the right to travel freely throughout the EU but unskilled workers from Romania and Bulgaria entitlement to work will be restricted to existing UK quota schemes to fill vacancies in the agricultural and food processing sectors. The Home Office have said that there will be no increase in permits issued for these schemes and in order to participate workers will be required to have an authorisation document issued by the
Home Office.
Skilled workers will still be able to work in the UK as now, providing their employers have obtained a work permit, or the individual qualifies under the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme. Students and the self employed will also be able to come to the UK providing certain requirements are met.
The new arrangements will be reviewed in 12 months and the Government has announced that its proposed Migration Advisory Committee will assist in this process looking at the needs of the labour market, the impact of European immigration to the UK and the approach taken by other European countries.
The Irish Government has decided to take a similar stance to the UK. The UK, Ireland and Sweden were the only European Union countries to allow the citizens of the 8 Eastern European countries that joins the EU in 2004 unlimited access to their labour markets, the only requirement being registration with the Home Office during the first 12 months of employment. Nationals of Malta and Greek Cyprus were not required to register.
Since the 1st of May 2004 it is believed that an estimated 600,000 workers from the new Eastern European States have come to the UK to work. The highest proportion of workers have been from Poland, accounting for over 60% of the total, followed by Lithuania and Slovakia. In many cases accession state workers have helped to fill gaps in the UK’s labour market, particularly in administration, business and management, hospitality and catering, agricultural, manufacturing
and food, fish and meat processing. More workers have come to live and work in East Anglia than anywhere else, almost 15% of the total, London being the second most popular region. 25% of those working in East Anglia are in the agricultural sector, and almost a fifth in administration, business and management.
As a number of EU citizens entitled to come to the UK grows, employers will need to be increasingly vigilant to ensure they don’t break any laws by unknowingly employing workers illegally. Businesses will need to ensure that any Bulgarian or Romanian nationals that they employ have permission to work, or alternatively they will need to apply for a work permit to enable them to do so. Failure to comply could result in employers facing stiff financial penalties and could
affect their ability to employ other overseas workers in the future.
For further information about employing overseas workers please contact Louise Boyes or Rose Carey on 01206 835270.