Daily News

View All News

UK – Retailer Next reportedly hiring workers from Poland at expense of local jobseekers

28 November 2014

A former worker for high street retailer Next has revealed that cheaper workers are being recruited from Poland to work at the firm’s warehouse in the northeast, despite high levels of local unemployment, report The Mirror

Retired cleaner Paul Crowcroft told the Mirror that Polish workers began arriving at the warehouse in West Yorkshire earlier this month, ahead of the expected Christmas rush: “They would suddenly turn up in busloads, seven coaches as a time.”

The newspaper sent an undercover investigator, posing as a jobseeker interested in working for Next, to an open day in Warsaw run by Polish recruitment firm Flamejobs. The company’s Operations Director, Arseniusz Wolinksi, told the investigator: “There are 350 people going. Our company has sent 7,000 people there so far.”

When asked by the investigator about the job, Mr Wolinski told him that he would earn £6.50 an hour to pick and package items in the warehouse; less than permanent employees but up to four times what he could earn doing a similar job in Poland.

Despite the moral ambiguity of recruiting these workers from abroad, under current UK law, Next is not doing anything illegal… Yet.

While Mr Crowcroft believes that the Poles are being exploited; provided the workers are paid the minimum wage and pay the appropriate tax and national insurance contributions (NICs) they are, in the eyes of current law, being treated fairly.

Under UK law, stemming from the European Agency Workers Directive (AWD), the workers must receive the same pay and conditions as permanent employees following 12 weeks of continuous employment. Given that the contracts offered to the jobseekers are scheduled to end in early February, it is unlikely that they will become eligible for equal treatment. So whilst it may be morally questionable to hire workers for less than 12 weeks to circumvent paying them more money, this is also not illegal.

With more than 218,000 people in the Yorkshire and Humber region out of work, Next has been strongly criticised for looking overseas rather than supporting local jobseekers.

A spokesman for Next told the Mirror: “We simply can’t recruit enough local people.”

He advised that the firm is currently using 250 Polish workers and hires up to 500 each year. The retailer also claimed that it advertises jobs in the UK first, as it needs extra time to recruit from abroad.

However, Flamejobs advertised the selection process for Next in October. The advert appeared in Polish on the company’s website but did not appear in the English language section.

The advert was seen on Flamejobs by the Mirror on 3 November with the recruitment selection process in Warsaw taking place three days later. The newspaper monitored the careers page of Next’s website and those of two UK recruitment agencies. The advert for the warehouse jobs was posted in the UK on 19 November.

Again, under current law this practice is not illegal. The recruitment sector is regulated by the Employment Agencies Act (1973) and the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations (2003) (the Conduct Regulations). According to the government’s consultation paper, which was launched in July, the legislation does not currently regulate where employment agencies and employment businesses place advertisements for vacancies. 

In July, Prime Minister David Cameron promised: “We are banning overseas-only recruitment, legally requiring these agencies to advertise in English in the UK.” 

At the time, Kevin Green, CEO of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), commented: “British agencies should be listing all vacancies in Britain and in English. Advertising exclusively overseas is already prohibited under the existing Equality Act and we have not seen any evidence that it is happening.”

While Next did, in fact, advertise in Poland and the UK; there was a delay of at least two weeks between when the adverts were published and a recruitment day was held in Warsaw while one does not appear to have been held in the local area. The Mirror also emailed the two local Next recruiters, Meridian and Solsbury Solutions, asking for jobs in the area. Only one replied, with an offer to work at Superdrug. 

Unless the new regulations introduced by the government outline how publically and strongly jobs must be advertised in the UK before being offered to overseas workers, companies could continue to advertise jobs quietly in the UK before looking abroad in an attempt to circumvent any new requirements.