Warning about rogue recruitment agencies

UK businesses in the manufacturing and industrial sectors, which have faced drastic skills shortages and an ever-diminishing pool of available labour, have to a great extent been helped by the skilled labour available from other EU countries including Poland. However, one specialist international recruitment consultant has a drastic warning for companies looking to recruit from overseas. Omega Resource Group says that a minority of UK and foreign-based recruitment agencies are at best sweat shops and at worst little more than promulgators of slavery. According to James Strickland, group director of Omega, most businesses recruit overseas labour in response to the lack of applicants locally or based upon a specific skills base, which is needed, that cannot be found within the existing UK labour pool. Boasting reliability, hard work ethic, willingness to work and flexibility it is easy to see why they are such an attractive option to UK organisations. “If reputable employers and recruitment consultants engage in a professional process, the myth of cheap labour from abroad can be dispelled. But only if the Gangmaster Licensing Authority hits offending companies very hard – and by that I mean putting them out of business. We vet client companies along with candidates and employ welfare officers from the country of origin to ensure work, pay and ethical standards are adhered to throughout the period of an employee’s contract,” adds Strickland. “To guard against abuse of candidates, job placements need to be sourced for existing vacancies and we back any legislation that tightens up the recruitment industry and ensures that migrant workers are regarded as a valuable asset, together with appropriate welfare packages put in place.” “The issue of migrant labour needs to urgently be addressed and this is increasingly important with the recent accession countries such as Romania and Bulgaria which joined the EU in January 2007. We are keen for restrictions to be put in place as control and candidate welfare is top of the priority list.”