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There have been calls at UNI-Europa’s ICT Forum - meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia - for clear migration rules that protect mobile workers while concentrating that mobility on filling computer skills in short supply.

The debate - the first at an ICT Forum since 2000 - was prompted by new calls for “Green Card” visa schemes in a number of key western economies and a big increase in dry-foot outsourcing* with multinational companies transferring workers into the United States and Europe from lower cost offshore countries.

Migration expert Dr Jane Millar warned that traditional methods of managing migration are now “out of touch with international sourcing practices in IT and weak in defending the competitive position of the resident workforce”.

The aim is to tackle abuses of visa and permit systems to protect existing working conditions, to organise mobile workers and to ensure equal treatment.

“We support the principle of migration but it has to be managed - we want to protect the interests of both domestic and migrant workers,” said Peter Skyte. IT President from Amicus UK.

Employers were urged to enter dialogue with unions on the issue - to “preserve the social truce” as one speaker put it.

In the UK the number of ICT work permits shot up to 34,000 last year at a time of a general decline in ICT job numbers and 80% of those issued in computer services were intra-company transfers.

Because this system is not transparent there are fears that these transfers can be a concealed route for bringing in cheaper workers to undermine existing conditions, depress skills training programmes and deter students in that country from taking up ICT degree courses.

“There is inadequate oversight, ineffective control and very weak enforcement structures,” warned Jane.

In Australia under a visa points system - which the UK is adopting - ICT applications continue to be given favoured treatment even though there is an oversupply, particularly among graduates coming out of Australian universities.

In an increasingly complex and global market six of the top ten ICT companies sponsoring work permits into the UK were headquartered in India.

“The question needs to be asked whether the skills represented … are not available in the UK, which would be a justifiable use of the work permit system, or whether these companies are bringing in non-resident permit holders at below going pay rates in the UK - which would not,” said Peter Skyte.

Uniteresearch shows that the majority of IT work permit holders appear to be paid less than the industry average salary.

In a political world where migration has become a hot - and divisive - issue, unions are anxious to focus on the potential pitfalls of a newly developing business model of dry-foot offshoring rather than on particular workers affected.

“Unions need to develop a strategy to seek to prevent the use of this issue by those who wish to promote xenophobia and racism,” said Andrew Bibby - the man who coined the phrase “dry-foot offshoring”.

Many mobile workers are tied to a particular employer by their work permit - making them more vulnerable to exploitation. The Irish government has just abolished the link giving migrant ICT workers the right to “own” their work permits and move between employers.

“We are trade unionists. We stand for the rights of working people and we do not differentiate between migrant and non-migrant workers,” said Michael Jäkel, of ver.di Germany.

UNI Telecoms top team:

Shoji Morishima, Bo Larsen and Neil Anderson with Fumiko Kimura

Workshop groups demanded more information from companies on their treatment of migrant workers and called for unions to be proactive on the issue.

There was concern at the isolation endured by many migrant workers and the need for unions to reach out to them to offer their services - particularly legal advice.

“Migrant workers must not be marginalised, we have to involve our colleagues in the daily working environment,” said Werner Bayer of ver.di.

“We don’t want to build walls around Europe,” said Carla Kiburg of FNV Bondgenoten, Netherlands. “We have to make sure all workers - including migrant workers - get the same standards and the same treatment.”

In the United States ICT work permits have dropped sharply but there is growing pressure for a relaxed ICT migration policy or even, urges Bill Gates, no controls at all.

But the situation is different in non-English speaking countries said Bernhard Pfitzner, also of ver.di, Germany where permit rules oblige the same benefits as a comparable German employee and forbid “body shopping” - the migration of workers through sub-contract firms.

In global telecom company BT the IT department employs 32,000 staff worldwide but many are employed through subcontracts without collective agreements. “If people are on the same conditions and we can organise them then many of the problems will go away,” said Philip O’Rawe of Connect UK.

HK Privat estimates that 5,000-plus non-EU IT professionals are currently working in Denmark. Immigration authorities consult unions over work permits - and a high level of unionisation helps monitor corporate behaviour.



* In a report to UNI IBITS global union Andrew Bibby defined “dry-foot outsourcing” thus:

“Companies take advantage of the benefits of moving work offshore and yet the work (or some of it) is actually done in the home “onshore country”.

“Since this is a form of offshoring which can be undertaken without having to send the work across the oceans of the world - a form of offshoring where a company can keep the work at home and doesn’t need to get its feet wet - we are suggesting that this way of working be referred to as “dry-foot offshoring”.