The Home Office has agreed to consider proposals to impose tougher rules on companies seeking to bring overseas IT contractors into the UK, following concerns that some companies may be abusing the government's work permit scheme.
Officials from Work Permit UK told a meeting of employers and trade unions last month that they will consider imposing tighter requirements for companies to advertise vacancies in the UK before they could consider bringing in overseas staff.
Proposals under consideration include requiring companies to place advertisements for vacancies in well known publications and web sites, such as Computer Weekly and Computing, before they are allowed to apply to transfer staff from overseas.
Trade union Amicus, and the Professional Contractors Group claim that unscrupulous firms are exploiting the scheme by advertising in obscure journals and web sites and then claiming the are unable to find staff with the right skills.
The Home Office receives over 800 applications for work permits a month, but this is not reflected in the number of jobs advertised in the mainstream press, the PCG claims.
The meeting heard that the number of new work permits issued over the past year had fallen form 5,558 to 2620 while the number of work permit renewals remained unchanged at 2531.
But union representatives said they were unhappy that the number of overseas IT staff brought to the UK under the intercompany transfer scheme had risen from 2952 to 3113, at a time of high IT unemployment in the UK.
Peter Skyte, national secretary for Amicus, said that he believed companies were wrongly using the intracompany transfer scheme to bring overseas contractors to the UK while depriving UK contractors of work.
Work Permit UK also revealed plans to commission a rapid independent review of the work permit scheme in the wake of rising concerns about abuse.