IS THERE NO ONE LEFT IN BRITAIN WHO CAN MAKE A SANDWICH?
As company that supplies M&S and Tesco is forced to recruit 300 staff in Hungary...
THE UK’s biggest sandwich maker wants to recruit hundreds of workers from Eastern Europe because no Britons will do the job. Bosses from Greencore Group are flying to Hungary today in search of staff for its new factory.
The firm, which supplies Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda, admits it will have to recruit most of the 300 workers it needs from overseas.
Its vacancy crisis will re-ignite claims that Britain’s generous welfare system has created a generation unwilling to work, while acting as a magnet for foreigners.
Allyson Russell, Greencore’s human resources director, said the company had tried to recruit in the UK, but that it was ‘not always the kind of work’ which people wanted to do.
The £35million factory, in Northampton, is due to open in early 2016. Mrs Russell said low unemployment meant few locals could be found to fill vacancies, although there are around 8,000 jobless in the town, a rate of 6.8 per cent – the national average, while in
nearby Corby it is 9.5 per cent and Luton 8.7 per cent. In Hungary, the average wage is little more than £7,000. Even if workers coming here were on the minimum wage, they would earn almost double that – £13,5 0 a year.
And they would have their wages topped up with tax credits – seen as a major attraction for EU migrants – and housing benefit. These mean a migrant with no dependants on the minimum wage has their net income of about £184 a week boosted to £ 54, studies have suggested. For those with a partner and two children, that rockets to £543 a week, equivalent to a salary of more than £ 8,000.
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has claimed that the last Labour government’s ‘open-door’ policy led to a huge influx of low-skilled migrant workers while its welfare system disincentivised Britons to work.
Northampton council leader David Mackintosh said: ‘I think it’s a real shame people in Northampton aren’t applying.’
When asked about migrants from Hungary coming to Britain in order to fill the positions, Mr Mackintosh said: ‘We’ve already got problems with a growing population and this does put pressure on lots of things like doctors’ surgeries, school places and the infrastructure in Northampton.
‘Trying to bring extra people over that are not from Northampton is going to put extra pressure on our already strained infrastructure.’
Mrs Russell said Greencore had run a scheme with job centres in Northampton, but had not attracted many applicants from the town.
Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell said: ‘This highlights why we have so many people coming here – because jobs are available and not everyone wants to take those jobs. People on benefits here should be willing to take any job.’
The MP for Romford added: ‘You cannot blame business and you cannot blame the people wanting to work. Maybe it is our benefits system that encourages people not to work.’
Greencore is not the only company to go to Eastern Europe in search of workers. Earlier this year, the Mail found British companies had placed almost 8,000 job adverts trying to recruit Romanian nurses, taxi drivers and hotel staff.