It was announced today the Home Office has accepted all 16 recommendations made by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) on how to tighten up the rules controlling when skilled workers are allowed to take jobs in the UK.

Currently British firms have to advertise vacancies at UK Jobcentres two weeks before they are able to look abroad.
Under changes being announced by Home Secretary Alan Johnson this is to be extended to a month before recruiting from overseas.
This means, the Home Office said, that British workers will have more time to apply and be interviewed


The measures recommended by the Migration Advisory Committee are designed to tilt the odds in favour of British jobseekers AND those from EU countries with a right to work in the UK.

The qualification period for skilled foreign workers employed by multinational companies to become eligible to work in the UK will also be doubled to a year.
Also, the minimum salary that will allow someone to qualify as a skilled worker and be eligible to work in the UK will rise from £17,000 to £20,000.


The striking workers in Lindsey did have legitimate grievances against Total SA and the construction firm IREM — against their exclusion from employment on the refinery construction project, and against the inevitable undercutting of wages and conditions which results from the employment of non-unionised workforces

As TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said

'Unions are clear that the anger should be directed at employers, not the Italian workers.
No doubt some of the more distasteful elements in our towns and cities will try to use the fears of workers to stir up hatred and xenophobia'


For an analysis of the action at Total's Lindsey oil refinery Seumas Milne's article from January this year also comments how
'the BNP and its friends will try to exploit these rolling stoppages'