Firms where foreign workers are the norm

BRITISH firms could be forced to reveal how many foreign workers they employ under plans outlined by Home Secretary Amber Rudd, in a bid to encourage bosses to hire and train more British staff.

These are some of the companies that could find themselves embarrassed by the proposed move.

PRET A MANGER

Eight out of ten workers at the popular sandwich chain were revealed to be foreign-born three years ago.

Pret’s decision to hire young foreigners at a time of record British youth unemployment was criticised in 2011 by then-employment minister Chris Grayling as ‘unacceptable’.

Despite its French name, the sandwich chain was opened by British college friends Sinclair Beecham and Julian Metcalfe in 1986. It is now owned by a private equity firm.

MALMAISON HOTELS

In 2012 it emerged that 60 per cent of the 2,300 jobs in the hotel chain were held by foreign workers.

The bulk of its employees came from Eastern European countries such as Latvia, Slovakia and Poland.

The Malmaison group, which was founded in the UK in 1994, was sold along with the Hotel Du Vin chain to the Frasers Hospitality Group for £363million last year.

BERNARD MATTHEWS

The Norfolk food giant is another British business that has historically employed a large number of foreign workers.

Some 30 per cent of the firm’s 2,000-strong workforce came from overseas five years ago, when it was praised by the Equality and Human Rights Commission as an example of how to treat all workers with respect.

The company later said it had a ‘streamlined’ recruitment process for employing migrant workers, including interviews in their own language, setting up bank accounts and finding accommodation for them before they arrived in the UK.

GREENCORE GROUP

The UK’s biggest sandwich maker recruited staff from Eastern Europe two years ago as it could not find Britons willing to do the job.

Greencore bosses flew to Hungary as the group looked to recruit 300 workers from overseas.

The business supplies Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda from its Northampton factory.