Labour's Bryant backs down over ‘misinformed’ migrant recruitment speech
12 August 2013
Shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant MP has been criticised for a lack of understanding of employment law, after rewriting a speech that included criticism of the recruitment policies of leading retailers Next and Tesco.
Mon, 12 Aug 2013
Shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant MP has been criticised for a lack of understanding of employment law, after rewriting a speech that included criticism of the recruitment policies of leading retailers Next and Tesco.
Bryant (pictured) delivered a speech this morning at the Institute for Public Policy Research entitled “Effective action on immigration not offensive gimmicks”, which is available in full on the Labour Party website.
The text differs from a leaked version of the speech reported yesterday in The Sunday Telegraph, in which Bryant suggested Next had avoided having to comply with the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR), labelling both Next and Tesco as “unscrupulous employers whose only interest seems to be finding labour as cheaply as possible”.
He was criticised by Next for his misunderstanding of the AWR, while Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) chief executive officer Kevin Green says he “sounds painfully uninformed” in the leaked speech.
And Norman Rose, executive director of the Recruitment Society, told the BBC: “They don't have their facts correct and it's part of a current jingoism that's going around about British jobs for British workers.”
The revised speech contains no mention of the Agency Workers Regulation although it does, as suggested by the Telegraph, refer to firms employing “dodgy practices” around the minimum wage when targeting overseas recruits.
In a statement drafted ahead of the amended speech and supplied to recruiter.co.uk, Next notes that agency workers from Poland “cost us exactly the same as local agency workers, and our existing employees… the nationality of workers in no way affects their rights under Agency Workers Regulations, a fact Mr Bryant should be aware of”.
Tesco also came in for criticism for the high proportion of Eastern European workers taking on jobs at a new site, although Bryant acknowledges in the speech as delivered that: “Tesco are clear they have tried to recruit locally. And I hope they can provide more reassurance for their existing staff. But the fact that staff are raising concern shows how sensitive the issue has become.”
Bryant also asks that more companies provide such reassurance – claiming that much Next recruitment is done through Polish recruitment agency Flame, whose website is entirely in Polish – reviving a call made last year by Labour leader Ed Miliband.
Bryant spent much of his morning ahead of the 10am speech defending himself on Twitter and encouraging other users of the site to read the speech in full, following both the initial Sunday Telegraph coverage and a series of media interviews, scheduled as Labour look to stick their own flag in the sand over migration and employment policy.
Shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant MP has been criticised for a lack of understanding of employment law, after rewriting a speech that included criticism of the recruitment policies of leading retailers Next and Tesco.
Bryant (pictured) delivered a speech this morning at the Institute for Public Policy Research entitled “Effective action on immigration not offensive gimmicks”, which is available in full on the Labour Party website.
The text differs from a leaked version of the speech reported yesterday in The Sunday Telegraph, in which Bryant suggested Next had avoided having to comply with the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR), labelling both Next and Tesco as “unscrupulous employers whose only interest seems to be finding labour as cheaply as possible”.
He was criticised by Next for his misunderstanding of the AWR, while Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) chief executive officer Kevin Green says he “sounds painfully uninformed” in the leaked speech.
And Norman Rose, executive director of the Recruitment Society, told the BBC: “They don't have their facts correct and it's part of a current jingoism that's going around about British jobs for British workers.”
The revised speech contains no mention of the Agency Workers Regulation although it does, as suggested by the Telegraph, refer to firms employing “dodgy practices” around the minimum wage when targeting overseas recruits.
In a statement drafted ahead of the amended speech and supplied to recruiter.co.uk, Next notes that agency workers from Poland “cost us exactly the same as local agency workers, and our existing employees… the nationality of workers in no way affects their rights under Agency Workers Regulations, a fact Mr Bryant should be aware of”.
Tesco also came in for criticism for the high proportion of Eastern European workers taking on jobs at a new site, although Bryant acknowledges in the speech as delivered that: “Tesco are clear they have tried to recruit locally. And I hope they can provide more reassurance for their existing staff. But the fact that staff are raising concern shows how sensitive the issue has become.”
Bryant also asks that more companies provide such reassurance – claiming that much Next recruitment is done through Polish recruitment agency Flame, whose website is entirely in Polish – reviving a call made last year by Labour leader Ed Miliband.
Bryant spent much of his morning ahead of the 10am speech defending himself on Twitter and encouraging other users of the site to read the speech in full, following both the initial Sunday Telegraph coverage and a series of media interviews, scheduled as Labour look to stick their own flag in the sand over migration and employment policy.
