Guest 745- Registered: 27 Mar 2012
- Posts: 3,370
Foreign workers take nearly half of Olympic Park jobs: So much for promises to employ British staff!
• Four in ten of the jobs created went to foreign workers
• Around 18,400 jobs out of 46,000 went to people abroad
• Almost half the workers employed to build the London 2012 Olympic Park were from overseas.
Despite promises from ministers that the Games would create thousands of jobs for Britons, around four in ten of the jobs created went to foreign workers.
Figures obtained by the Mail show that approximately 18,400 jobs out of 46,000 went to people from abroad, especially Eastern Europe.
Costly: The Olympic Park was meant to give East London a skills legacy
At the same time British workers struggled to find work in the construction industry during the economic crisis.
The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) had pledged to employ local people, creating a skills legacy for East London in line with Gordon Brown's promise of 'British jobs for British workers'.
But Olympic bosses admitted last night that although 98 per cent of the contracts awarded for the project went to British-registered companies, they had no control over where those firms sourced their staff.
The admission will come as a blow to taxpayers, who had hoped to reap a long-lasting economic benefit from their £9.3billion investment in the Olympic Park project.
Business leaders pointed to a chronic manual skills shortage in the UK, but critics said it appeared contractors had merely sought cheaper labour from elsewhere.
When the Mail visited the Athletes' Village in the Olympic Park last week, a sign for workers was written in Polish only and translates as 'Keep door closed at all times'.
Speaking their language: The sign in Polish telling workers to close the door
Promises: Despite assurances that the Games would create thousands of jobs for Britons, around four in ten of the jobs created went to foreign workers
When asked why it was not also written in English, an employee said: 'I suppose it is because most of the workers here are Polish.
'The contractors wrote that for their staff.'
Former British diplomat Alp Mehmet, vice-chairman of the think-tank Migration Watch, said: 'If the ODA and its contractors have gone overseas to look for cheaper labour then that is a lamentable act.'
According to figures, only 60 per cent of staff working on the site were British.
More than a quarter - 28 per cent - were from the EU and 12 per cent were from other countries.
The ODA said almost a fifth of the workers were 'local people' employed from the five host boroughs of Newham, Greenwich, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest.
But a loophole means 'local' can include anyone with an address in the area, including new migrants staying in hotels and B&Bs.
Romanians made up the largest foreign worker group at 8 per cent of the workforce on the Olympic site, followed by the Republic of Ireland, Lithuania, Poland and Bulgaria.
The breakdown was collated by the ODA last December when 8,465 people were working on the site.
An ODA spokesman said: 'We have met our targets to train and recruit local residents and those out of work.
'However, while the ODA has encouraged companies to employ more local residents, recruitment decisions are ultimately taken by our contractors - 98 per cent of whom are registered in the uk
Guest 745- Registered: 27 Mar 2012
- Posts: 3,370
And will the building of cross rail ,or Dover regeneration be any different ??
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
Keith, it is amazing that some politicians or directors of sorts will actually get away with implying that jobs will go mainly to Britons, or to local people, whichever project they are talking about.
By law, jobs in Britain in the private sector can go to whomsoever is entitled, including any EU citizen.
If any authority were to actively recruit local people and not non-British people, they would probably - certainly - be breaking the Law and committing discrimination.
To actively turn down a non-British worker who is entitled to work in Britain, on account of their not being British, would be discrimination.
To look for workers directly in another country via agencies or advertisements, is also legal, providing they are entitled o work in Britain.
The EU laws on employment in Britain could only be changed if we left the EU.
Until such time, absolutely nothing can be done about it.
But it is reproachful when some authority or another tries to make believe they will employ largely local people, giving the impression they will employ local British people. By Law they can't, so they are only hoodwinking us.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
and that leaves 6 out of 10 jobs going to british people.no quarms there.
Guest 745- Registered: 27 Mar 2012
- Posts: 3,370
Not unless you happen to be the 4 out of 10 British that never got the job Brian.
UK taxpayer's money going out of the country, economic madness
4 million unemployed
9.3 billion borrowed ,not by Easton Europe, but by us mugs
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
there was never going to be enough british construction workers for such a project.
however if some that wanted to work on it were denied the opportunity by agencies/employers bringing in cheap labour from abroad then it is scandalous.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
kieth,still have no quarms.a job is a job evan if its sweeping up and making pots of tea.