Falling numbers of migrant workers threaten food and drink industry

Jack Matthews (pictured), chief executive of the food and drink sector skills council Improve, is calling for ministers from the Home Office and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) to meet industry leaders to discuss the potential impact of the government’s immigration and skills policies on the future productivity of the UK’s largest manufacturing sector. A study commissioned by Improve has found evidence that the numbers of migrant workers employed in the food and drink industry are declining after a period of rapid increase sparked by the admission of several eastern European countries to the EU in 2004. It is believed that Polish workers in particular, who make up around half (53.3 per cent) of the 72,000 migrant workers in the industry, are beginning to return home or head to other emerging economies to work. This, the report concludes, could potentially lead to serious labour shortages, with around half (47.1 per cent) of food and drink manufacturers saying that a fall in the number of migrant workers would leave them with vacancies, and more than a quarter (28.3 per cent) claiming that it would hamper productivity. “These findings are a cause of concern for many in the industry,” said Matthews. “Northern Ireland Food and Drink, for example, has been quite frank in its claim that, without migrant workers, the country’s meat industry would collapse, taking 20 per cent of the UK’s red meat supply with it. “More than one in ten workers currently employed in the industry are classified as migrants. The issue is that food and drink companies turn to migrant labour because they cannot find staff in the numbers they need at home. It is nothing to do with lower wages – only two per cent of employers say they take on migrant workers to save money, whereas 26 per cent cite shortages in their local labour market. There is also no suggestion that migrant workers are being employed because they are better skilled – if anything, there is evidence that migrant workers are not being used to their full potential, with two-thirds of workers being employed in elementary roles despite many being very well qualified. Companies employ migrant workers out of necessity, and the industry will have to look seriously at how it can maintain its productivity if numbers fall significantly.” The study found that a third (33.2 per cent) of food and drink manufacturers surveyed now employ staff from overseas, down from the 48 per cent estimated by a smaller study in 2005. It concludes that this decline correlates with government figures which show a four per cent fall in applications from nationals of eastern European EU member states to work in the food and drink industry between 2006 and 2007. Matthews said there was evidence that employers had started to respond to falling numbers of migrant workers, citing the study’s finding that 85.1 per cent of employers who employ overseas staff now did so using long-term permanent contracts, in a bid to retain valued employees. But he said the industry needed more help from the government to ensure that its labour needs are fully considered and understood in immigration policies and in developing a strategy for stimulating the labour market at home. “What is clear,” he said, “is that migrant workers play a very significant and positive role in the industry and we need that to continue. However, we need to ask ourselves if we are over-reliant on migrant labour at the same time as we consider what we can do to retain valued workers from other countries. We have to look at boosting the domestic labour pool and the level of skills of our existing workforce in order to counter any decline in numbers of migrant workers and the possible threat to the industry’s productivity that brings. “I sincerely hope that all of the key stakeholders involved will be interested in discussing how we can best achieve this in the near future. Ministers need to be fully aware of the contribution migrant workers make to the food and drink industry when it comes to developing policies on immigration. We are in a situation at the moment, for example, where workers from Romania and Bulgaria are now emigrating in much larger numbers than those from Poland, yet visa restrictions mean they cannot come to the UK to do the same jobs that Polish workers have been doing. We need an open and fair labour market and I believe it is important at this point that the government sits down and listens to the concerns many food and drink employers have.”