Migrant workers are more qualified and have better attitude to work, say firms, while discrimination against them may be illegal
Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, pitched the government into a dispute with employers by encouraging them to give priority to British workers when recruiting staff.
In a speech that suggested the success of his welfare reforms plans partly depended on immigration controls, Duncan Smith said businesses had to "play their part" instead of relying on industrious immigrants from eastern Europe.
But business leaders said it often made sense to take on well-educated and hard-working foreigners, while lawyers questioned the legality of giving preference to a British applicant over an equally well-qualified European Union migrant.
Immigration is a faultline within the coalition ? David Cameron recently suggested that government policy in this area would be more effective if he were not in coalition with the Lib Dems ? and the Department for Work and Pensions said Duncan Smith was speaking in a party political capacity when he made the speech at a thinktank in Spain.
Duncan Smith said more than half the jobs created between 1997 and 2010 went to foreign nationals, and over the last 12 months foreigners were still filling more than half of new posts. The government wanted to give Britons an incentive to come off benefits and get into work, and had already put a limit on the number of non-EU workers allowed into Britain. But employers had to play their part too, Duncan Smith argued.
"Government cannot do it all," he said. "As we work hard to break welfare dependency and get young people ready for the labour market we need businesses to play their part."
But David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said employers hired eastern Europeans because often they were better workers.
"[Firms] expect young people to come forward to them who are able to read, write and communicate, and have a good work ethic, and too often that's not the case [with British applicants]," he said. "There is a stream of highly able eastern European migrants who are ? skilled, speak good English and, more importantly, want to work."
Neil Carberry, the CBI director for employment policy, said although businesses wanted to give British people a chance, firms had to be allowed to hire the best recruits. "Employers should choose the best person," he said. "The challenge is to ensure that more young Britons are in a position to be the best candidate."
Downing Street refused to be drawn on whether Britons should be given priority over candidates of equal merit from elsewhere in the EU.
Paul Griffin, head of employment law at the law firm DBS, said such discrimination would be illegal.
"Any favouring of British workers above those from the EU or anywhere else if they have the right to work here could make an employer liable for a claim for direct race discrimination under the Equalities Act," he said.Liam Byrne, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said the numbers of jobs going to foreign workers had risen since the government took power. "Despite all their bold talk, four of of five new jobs have gone to newcomers over the last year," he said.ends
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jul/01/iain-duncan-smith-british-workers
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