British jobs for British workers
02-September-2010
*
* Your Gripe Gripe List Quick Gripe Comments Gripe Poll Resources Contact Us Advertise Home *
* prev
next *
 

British jobs for British workers

Your Ad Here Post a comment Post a comment 
Related Gripes Related Gripes 
Random Gripe Random Gripe 
Feedburner Gripes by email 
 
 

I must admit to not having paid too much attention to the news in the last week or so.  Having been job hunting myself for quite a while now, I've kind of had other things on my mind and not really had the time.  However, I had a few moments too check the headlines this morning and what I read there put me off my breakfast.  As a British worker, even though I don't work in this particular industry, I was left feeling more than a little betrayed.

In case you have also missed the news...  Hundreds of workers across the country, mainly at oil refineries and power plants, have been protesting about the use of foreign workers at the Lindsey Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire.  Total, the French oil giant who owns the plant has awarded a £200 milion contract to Italian firm IREM to construct the new HDS-3 unit at the site.

Construction workers

Insentives for employers to choose British workers...

Well quite frankly, employing foreign workers when there are suitable british workers out there doesn't sit well with me even when the economy is booming, but we're in a recession now and I think that fact alone makes all the difference.  Perhaps it's far too easy for companies in the UK to hire a foreign workforce and there should be insentives for employers to choose British workers intead.  Make it so that employing the native workforce is the path of least resistance?  There again, Total isn't exactly a patriotic British company so why should we expect any loyalty there?

I don't think that it would be right to force companies to employ British workers and there are some cases when foreign specialist skills are needed.  Come to think of it, there are few people out there that would say British workers are lazy, they're not as good and they cost more than foreign workers.  Okay, some of that might be true, but for every slacker out there there are probably hundreds or even thousands of perfectly willing and competent workers waiting to fill his shoes.  The foreign workers we see here aren't the dead wood.  They're the ones that go the extra mile and work hard.  We have people like that here too and I think that they should be given a chance.

I suspect there's no right or wrong answer in all of this, there's just a feeling of great injustice where British men and women don't have jobs where perhaps they should.  I'm also pretty sure that our bumbling fool of a prime minister isn't going to do anything to help in any way whatsoever.  They can hold urgent talks with industry leaders and be as optimistic as they like, but it's just too little too late.

So if you're out there on the picket lines this week, you have my full support in all this.  Oh and another thing, I for one, will not be stopping to refuel my car at any Total petrol stations on my way to the Jobcentre!  It's a small thing I know, but if enough people did small things maybe big companies and governments would pay attention.

By: Paul D.


Other Related Gripes

Britain, Government and The Recession
Strike action by selfish workers
Employment law and unfair dismissal
Minimum wage for young people is pathetic
Google Street View UK, why so paranoid?
UK politics, a poor choice so why vote?
British holiday makers in Spain
What future has Britain now then?
Britain is losing its Britishness
British Gas profit while I freeze
Demise of the traditional British chippy
British Industry and the Metric System
Britishness not taught to kids
Why are English people so cold?
Immigration policies in the UK
There's no point working
Over worked and under paid
Timesheets can be a real chore
Call centre outsourced to India
Why do the British queue so much?
UK fishing industry almost destroyed
British pub closing time





Put British workers first?

Total recently awarded a lucrative contract to an Italian workforce. Should the jobs have gone to British workers instead and should companies be made to employ British workers where possible before resorting to hiring foreign labour?


 Yes, British jobs first
 No, that's a bad idea


Visitor Comments

Please read this before you post

Enter your comments in the space below

Name or nickname


Remember my name



 
Legislation is required to take the choice away from employers.

You want to trade in this country, fine, but you employ x percentage of British workers or you don't trade.

Step forward please a government with the spine to defend its citizens.
*Harsh But Fair  29-Aug-2010 15:57

 
Dear Angus

they employ them because they will work for less money.
*Sally  21-Jul-2010 16:04

 
Dear people,
I've heard the arguement,but I am still not convinced.
The question we need to be asking is;
"Why do British employers prefer to employ foreign workers ?"
*Angus  21-Jul-2010 15:52

 
Britain is heading for a revolution. Unemployment will rise to 5 to 8 million. The rest of the workers will be on minimum wage or part time. Rents will fall. House prices will crash. Local Government will be turned over to charity to run. Volunteer fire brigades will be established. Vigilante police forces will form. Maybe warlords and fiefdoms will develop. Law and order might breakdown.
*Crystal Clear Future  20-Jul-2010 23:20

 
Many come to work here for six months, go home to their old job. Claim back the taxes they paid in the UK but carry on claiming for the family for the rest of the year!

We have a racist Gov't, people. "They" will not level the playing field for the UK's captives.
*Andyj  20-Jul-2010 17:55

 
I work in a company which transports food to the major supermarkets from large distribution centres around the country, half the workers in my company are polish. they have come here as drivers and warehouse operatives because they were recruited by management who went to poland to interview them and offer them jobs. All the noticeboards in the company are duplicated, 1 in english and a 2nd in polish, side by side, They dont work for less money but they have lower outgoings than the brits who work here, 9 of them share a house not far from the company premises,5 work on days and 4 work at nights, they split all costs exactly equal. They pay rent of £800 gas is £60 & electricity £55, this means each pays approx £100 per month to live there, They dont pay national insurance either as it is being paid in their home country so they earn more for the same hours as a brit worker.
My mortgage is £300 without the other costs, The boss keeps telling us that his costs need to be cut and bonuses and rises are likely to be hit hard,to enable the company to remain competative, the poles are happy as they claim benefits for their children who are still in poland and their costs here are lower because of the shared living expenses. they arent putting any presure on the boss to increase pay as they are happy with the way things are, its the brits who face bigger bills who need support as the poles can disappear back home if it gets too sticky here.
*Tinkerman  16-Jul-2010 15:14

 
The reason employers love foreign labour so much is that they work for peanuts.They are happy to live 15 to one room, whereas british people expect decent wages & room to breath.
*anne  14-Apr-2010 10:48

 
thats the third time my comments have been removed, then they also remove my notice to this effect (this note here) cant even leave a moan unless they like what you say, a waste of time
*not the way  21-Mar-2010 15:12

 
There are too many immigrant scroungers in the UK and they are the ones you should be directing your anger at, for they are parasitic scum who abide by no laws and are protected by the PC brigade.

When some of you fat idle uneducated English (and it is mostly English rather than Welsh, Scots, or Irish) get off your lardy backsides and try to educate yourselves in both the academic sense and in how to work properly, then there is a solution in sight. Until that happens, the East Europeans and the Indians in particular, who work more productively, speak better English, and have better manners, will continue to be preferred by employers.

You are the problem and you hold the key to solving it.
*MikeP  09-Mar-2010 13:01

 
Soon the unemployed British will be the cheapest labour on the market. The Governemnt together with the Salvation Army will start soup kitchen to keep the cost of their sustenance down. Everyone will move to a "spike" - a workhouse.

Read George Orwell's

http://orwell.ru/library/novels/Down_and_Out_in_Paris_and_London/english/e_dopl

and

Jack London's People of the Abyss

http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/PeopleOfTheAbyss/
*The Clock Has Wound Back 100 Years  11-Nov-2009 22:30

 
Seeitcoming,
You are absolutely right. This state of affairs is everywhere and proper staff are being seen off simply for the reason of economics. Thing is, the job doesn't get done properly. The kindest thing I have to say about feckless wreck suggesting I'm a Nazi is that he or she is naive. Don't worry though feckless, I will not trouble these pages again (jackboots are still shiny though)
*Howsoonisnow?  11-Nov-2009 14:13

 
I have seen plumbers and electricians on £18 an hour paid off and other un trained staff put in their place the next day on £9.00 an hour, a pretty botch job but the managers were happy with the staff doing the job and saving them money for extra bonus at the end of the contract.
A lot of companies are using only agencies now so that they can hire and fire here and there on a few days work....then the other staff, no matter how much you look after them and carry them will backstab you and mess up your daily tasks to get you paid off, its more overtime for them ££ £ £...If you look at the jobs advertised now, you will see plumber, welder,pipe fitter jobs and electricians jobs being advertised on £10 an hour, which was a mates rate (labourer rate) 18 months ago..
*seeitcoming  10-Nov-2009 01:04


View more comments on this gripe


 
*   *
* © 2000-2009 The Weekly Gripe. All rights reserved. Please see our privacy policy and disclaimer.   Site Map *