Baroness Millerasked Her Majesty's Government:
What steps they are taking when granting labour permits to ensure that persons recruited from overseas are filling genuine vacancies not tillable from within the United Kingdom or elsewhere in the European Union and are not displacing existing workers. [HL307]
§ Baroness BlackstoneWhen applying for work permits employers are normally required to test the European economic area (EEA) labour market by advertising the job in the most appropriate medium and to provide details of any responses and reasons why resident workers are not suitable. This is not required in specified circumstances where it is not appropriate to test the availability of resident labour. These circumstances are where the applications are in respect of employees of multinational companies transferring to offices of the company based in this country, senior board level posts, jobs attracting related inward investment and jobs where there are acknowledged shortages of skills within the resident90WA labour force. Any allegations of the displacement of resident labour following the issue of a work permit are thoroughly investigated.