Points based immigration

THE UK seafood sector has been told it will be able to recruit overseas workers under the government’s new points based immigration proposals.

A FISH processor in north east Scotland has gone bust, resulting in the loss of nearly 70 jobs.

Prime Seafoods, which also sells fresh fish, including salmon, online, shut down its two fawctories in Peterhead and Fraserburgh last month, telling its 68 employees that insurmountable financial difficulties were to blame.

One of the affected workers reportedly said: ‘At 1pm we were told the factory was closing due to lack of fish and overheads that are not sustainable.’

The last published accounts for the firm, up until the end of May 2018, show that Prime Seafoods had a turnover of £28 million and suffered pre-tax losses of £236,000, which came after a trading shortfall of more than £317,000 the year before, according to the Press and Journal

Chief executive of the Scottish Seafood Association Jimmy Buchan said he was ‘shocked’ by the collapse of the firm, which has traded since 1980.

And he suggested that high businesses rates had also impacted on the business in recent years, and could be behind the closure.

‘I wouldn’t be surprised if other companies were to go the same way,’ he said. ‘It is a vulnerable industry in this current climate, but I think in this day and age this shouldn’t be happening.’

He said he hoped those affected would be able to find new jobs quickly because there is a demand for work in the area.

IT had been feared that the scheme, announced in February, would hit processing plants, particularly in the north east of Scotland, where 70 per cent of employees are foreign nationals.

However, roles such as fish filleters and fish processors, as well as butchers, slaughtermen in abattoirs and dairy workers, will now be classified as skilled, said the Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack.

‘For all those jobs, and many more, employers will be able to recruit workers from overseas,’ he said.

And the new system, a replacement for freedom of movement with the EU which ends on December 31, would be less restrictive than at present, he stressed.

‘Under the present system for skilled workers, people coming to the UK need the offer of a degree level job, with a salary of £30,000 or more.

‘Employers recruiting them must also pass a Resident Labour Market Test by advertising the job here first.

‘In future, there will be no Resident Market Labour Test. And no cap either, as there is at present.

‘And the minimum salary threshold is being reduced from £30,000 to £25,600.’

Lower salaries will be applicable where there are specific skills shortages.

Concerns had been raised by the Scottish Seafood Association and the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation that Westminster’s immigration plans would lead to shortages of labour.