UK shipping constrained by migration cap

Wednesday, 08 September 2010

Tighter immigration policies are now constraining the UK shipping sector with service providers unable to find qualified personnel for key positions, according to specialist recruitment agency Faststream, writes Mike King.

“The system is a mess and is having an impact on the ability of companies to utilise mobile, highly-skilled labour,” said Mark Charman, Faststream’s Group CEO.

The British government has been attempting to lower net migration by reducing the availability of Tier 2 visa certificates.

Since 19 July, a temporary cap on the total number of Sponsored Skilled General (Tier 2) visas issued by the UK Border and Immigration Agency has been in place while the Agency consults on a permanent limit.

With the exception of marine civil engineers, the UK government’s Skills Shortage List does not currently classify any shorebased maritime role as exempt from the licence system.

Charman said the cap had effectively rendered many shipping companies’ sponsor licences useless.

“A number of our clients are expressing serious concerns that they won’t be able to fill crucial UK-based vacancies in the coming months,” he said

“Two large ship owners have told us they have been issued with a zero quota, meaning they will not be able able to employ any new non European Ecconomic Area (EAA) citizens in the coming months as well as having to worry about going to appeal for existing non EEA employees whose visas will shortly expire.”

Some candidates had seen job offers withdrawn as a result of companies being unable to hire them.

“Whether for technical or commercial job roles, there are simply not enough qualified EEA candidates to fill all of the positions in the UK shore-based maritime job market,” said Charman.

“We can expect to see a knock on effect in a rise in costs for businesses as they are forced to pay higher salaries for EEA candidates.”