The government may make employers cough up for English classes if their workers can’t speak the language.
The calls came from Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and Hazel Blears, Communities Secretary this week.

In a speech to mark the 40th anniversary of Enoch Powell’s infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech, Trevor Philips asked why employers should invest in training and skills for UK workers when they can get the “readymade thing” in the form of migrant workers:
“Easyjet delivers ‘easymigrant’ to your door with all his or her skills, readiness to work over the hours and probably a university degree to boot. How can our million or so young people who are not in education, employment or training possibly compete?”
Philips then went on to address some solutions to the problem, which included making employers pay for language training:
“The Government has recently acknowledged this by suggesting that whilst English lessons might be made free for those who intend to settle here, it is right that those who come just to work - the ‘easymigrant’ - and their employers should bear the cost of their English classes. I believe that this is right.”

In the same week Blears indicated that employers should be forced to pay for migrant workers’ English lessons in a Communities and Local Government committee hearing.

Blears said to the assembled MPs that legislation could be considered:
"The DIUS (the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills) are very keen to say to employers: 'look, you are getting the benefit of some of these people coming in and doing the jobs, working hard, making you more productive; you have got a responsibility to make a contribution to the costs of learning English and to do much more of it on site, in a more flexible way'. I think that's the way forward."