Rolls-Royce - Importing labour into Britain
WORKERS, JULY 2006 ISSUE
Since May 2004, according to official figures, 392,000 people from the Eastern European member countries of the EU have applied to move to Britain. The numbers are rising: 45,660 applied in the first quarter of this year, up 6% on 2005's first quarter figure. The Bank of England noted approvingly, "[The] rise in labour supply has probably helped to hold down the rate of wage growth and inflation."
Rolls-Royce has been hiring engineers from Eastern Europe, Germany, Spain, France and the USA, because of the domestic skills shortage. And the company now gets 10% of its supplies from low-wage economies like the Czech Republic, Romania, India, China and Mexico, up from none in 2002.
Rolls-Royce is also planning to cut the number of its British workers, to have more than 50% of its workers based outside Britain. Currently, 60% of its 35,000 workers are based in Britain.