British jobs for Polish workers

Ok its more Daily Mail scaremongering as it appears to have been an error, but it does raise the question of why this can happen in an era of rising unemployment and a less than encouraging economic outlook:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1257784/Biggest-Asda-meat-supplier-excludes-English-speakers-instructions-given-Polish.html

Its been happening for years. Back in Sussex where I used to live the major Hortiulture plants stopped taking on locals as the eastern european staff would work harder, for longer and with less moaning. We need to stop blaming the fact that the are foreign and start realising that the average 20 something Pole or Romanian is has less of a chip on their shoulder and is willing to take any opportunity that they are given. Too many of our own countrymen are too happy to sit on their arses claiming the soch as the feel its their birthright!

Evan Davis' TV documentary the other week seems to bear this out. Although Davis could have been very selective in his choice of local "volunteers" to support the premise of his story - many of the native workers participating displayed seriously flawed work ethics/attitudes!

brits seem to lack the commitment or desire that is abundant in poles. As an employer I would employ a pole over a brit. Sad but true.

One thing always puzzles me in these types of discussion of 'lazy' brits. Since most of the people who say this are themselves brits - are they including themselves ?

There are a lot of Polish people who live in my area - but they too have been impacted by the recession and fewer jobs being available.

You travel hundreds of miles away from family and friends to a country your not really wanted in to do a job your not paid all that for and are expected to work stupid hours for.

Most of the jobs these guys do are the ones no one else wants to do cos its a bit hard.

I think fair play to them, I wouldn't do it and im not even all that lazy.

As someone who makes a living in recruitment, principally form bringing people from Eastern Europe I'd like to tell you a (brief) story of how I ended up here.

I had manufacturing businesses in Somerset and Devon , both routine food processing, both rapid growth businesses and in 2000-2003 my businesses stalled as I could not find local labour.

I had a loyal hard working local workforce average age 40+ but youngsters as a generalisation didn't want to get their hands dirty.

Job centre a joke - came for a tick in the box and back on the dole.

Agencies were crap - sent in anybody , no customer care, productivity awful.

Recruited my own people from Portugal (and its dominions) not great but better than nobody.

The Devon factory was close to where assylum seekers were housed and allowed to work and we must have tried 20 + nationalities - mainly lazy spongers.

Eastern Europe opened up May 2005 (Somerset had the lowest unemployment in Europe at the time <2%), we brought in 80 in June /July (one still here). It was like chalk and cheese. Interested, flexible, intelligent, hard working. Productivity/efficiency/yields all up.

Repeated the exercise that Christmas in Somerset - same result, dragging this company back into profitability.

Recognised it as a business opportunity and a real business need.

The quality of Poles coming to the UK has fallen but they are still better than the local equivalent but you need to be more rigorous in the recruitment process.

Demand has dropped during the recession and if you are looking to hire an Eastern European locally please apply the same rules as with a Brit. Why are they unemployed? There could be a good reason.

Using Eastern Europeans should be part of an employment mix. The factory quoted at the opening is acting illegally as well as stupidly and could easily loose the Asda contract.

As an employer you need to use horses for courses whatever their nationality, colour or creed and equally those coming from abroad need to integrate into this country.

On the benefits issue as a country we have a real problem in that people seem to consider state support as an automatic right rather than a fall back position if all else fails.

There are still Skills shortages in the UK

Care sector - huge demand

Welders

Warehousing

Butchery

Skilled mechanics

to name but a few so our job is to "the right people in the right place" and if these are Eastern Europeans so be it.

www.polish-recruitment.co.uk

Large scale recruitment in the UK is difficult. To underline Chrs's experience above, when in the corporate world I need to hire hundreds of people each year.

The approach to a challenge like that is clearly different to hiring one and a time, but that is not the point. First you let it be known widely that you are hiring lots of people.

Let me tell you what happens next. Do the 3 million unemployed people form an orderly queue at your door? No! Do some of them? No!

You end up have to be very proactive indeed to generate the numbers of suitable people, across all skill and pay levels.

Inevitably, you end up looking outside your local community, or even country.

I have done no formal studies as to why this is. However, as this is the North East, and unemployment here is high, one must assume that the majority of those people are quite happy being unemployed.

Obviously, it is not as simple as that. Running proactive campaigns amongst long term unemployed communities does get results, provided you are read for a reasonably pricey retraining journey. And a highish fall out rate.

In the end we did both. Took on long term unemployed (about 10% of vacancies), 'overseas' workers (over 50%).

Chris, thanks for the informative insight into the business. Your comment on the benefits culture in this country also hits the nail on the head.

There are no such things as 'British' jobs anymore. We are part of the EU. People who want to work, go where the work is.

The exploitation of migrant workers is however, a scandal. I experienced it myself as a migrant worker in France in the 80s, so it's nothing new.

Bren is bang on-what is a british job? Food stamps, national service for long term unemployed, hostels not flats for single parents. I would go as far as to say also no benefits unless you have paid NI.

you have to watch what you wish for. I worked for a company years ago as a carpet buyer in Kathmandu Valley Nepal. The UN rolled in waving their extended fingers of morality about ruling that all these kids could not work in the factories.

within weeks the child prostitution number rocketed downtown kathmandu.

i agree fact durring bad wether they turned up

where do you do marketing phone me might have chat