LONDON- The 3.5 billion-pound Indian restaurant industry breathed a sigh of
relief on Tuesday as a key UK government panel said skilled chefs can be
recruited from outside the European Union, but in bad news for Indian and other
non-EU IT workers, the committee shut the doors on them.
The Indian restaurant industry has been crippled by a severe shortage of chefs.
Many restaurants have closed down as owners find it difficult to recruit from
the Indian sub-continent due to recent changes in immigration laws.
Following public demonstrations by restaurant owners and workers in London and
Glasgow, the migration advisory committee of the Home Office has listed
�skilled chefs� as one of the occupations in which there is a shortage.
Being listed as a shortage occupation will enable restaurant owners to recruit
from the Indian sub-continent.
Mr Keith Best, head of the Immigration Advisory Service, who has been in the
forefront to ensure that laws are relaxed to recruit non-EU chefs, told PTI: �I
welcome the fact that skilled chefs have been included in the shortage
occupation list.
�However, I am taking soundings from the industry whether the development meets
the requirement to a satisfactory level. The stipulation of paying at least
8.10 pounds an hour for chefs may cause some difficulties.�
Mr Best, however, added that further negotiations were required to ensure that
the industry�s needs are met. He said there were �several thousand� vacancies
of skilled chefs in the industry.
The revised list of shortage occupations includes skilled chefs, secondary
school teachers in mathematics and science, consultants and senior nurses in
particular healthcare specialisms, some engineering occupations, including
civil and chemical engineers.
The committee�s lists are recommendations that are usually accepted by the
government.
However, Indian IT workers will not find it easy to find employment in Britain
due to the surplus in the employment market in Britain and the EU. Non-EU
workers will only be allowed to work in the shortage occupations listed.
Mr David Metcalf, the chairman of the migration advisory committee, said that
an employer would have to meet three hurdles to be able to hire somebody from
outside Europe.
�Firstly the job has got to be skilled, secondly there has got to be a
shortage, and thirdly and perhaps most importantly, it has to be sensible to
bring a person in � there we are looking at the tension between the short-run
fix of bringing immigrants in and the long-run need to up-skill the economy,�
he said.
The changes, which involved looking at 12 different indicators, will result in
a more skilled labour supply, he added.
Occupations which are allowed to use foreign workers due to shortages include
ship and hovercraft officers and racehorse trainers. There is also a shortage
of veterinary surgeons, while quantity surveyors and project managers are
needed for property development and construction.
In Scotland, the list includes manual filleters of frozen fish, senior nurses
in care of elderly units, and speech and language therapists. PTI
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