UK: TCS imported 3000 employees
By Ria Sharma

Even as America and United Kingdom struggle their way out of the recession, they are tightening rules to import techies.  Even though the new rules apply for everyone,  Indians are the hardest hit as they were the largest recipients of these working visas. First, the Americans tightened up the rules and regulations for H1B Visas.  Now Britain is doing the same.

The American Congress has passed a law that any company receiving Government funds to help it out of recession should give preference to American workers. On the ground,  the US officials have arrested a number of Indians for organizing H1B Working Visa fraud.

Now Britain has changed the rules making it more difficult for foreign companies to bring in their workers ostensibly on intra-company transfers. Apparently, India’s No. 1 tech company TCS had transferred 3000 employees to UK last year.

ContractorUK, which was established in 1998, and is a premier body for British IT contractors is reporting

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Work permit rule to protect IT contractors   

Employers will no longer be able to import staff into Britain from their overseas offices on intra-company transfers (ICT) where they will be replacing settled UK IT workers.

Already UK contractors have lost out to non-EU workers through employers using intra company transfer (ICT) permits, the PCG told the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC).

Rather than just allowing staff with company-specific knowledge to be temporarily transferred, as intended, employers have used the permits solely to cut their labour costs.

Typically, workers are brought into the UK en masse from the employer’s overseas division, such as in India, where pay rates and expectations are both significantly lower.

For example, Tata Consultancy Services brought across 3000 workers in the last year alone via intra-company transfers, 65 per cent of which go to the IT sector, the PCG said.

The group believes it is unfair that employers are not required to advertise the roles, which they want their transferees to fill, to the UK labour market, unlike non-ICT work permits.
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