Since the process to exit the EU was triggered by Theresa May on March 29, 2017, concerns have been expressed by various sectors about their ability to retain talent and recruit talented workers from the EU. Interest groups and industry bodies are lobbying to raise their concerns…
Since the process to exit the EU was triggered by Theresa May on March 29, 2017, concerns have been expressed by various sectors about their ability to retain talent and recruit talented workers from the EU. Interest groups and industry bodies are lobbying to raise their concerns.
At the moment, workers from the EU (when we refer to EU workers in this article it includes the EEA countries Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein and Switzerland) are not subject to immigration control and do not need a work visa to work in the UK. The tech sector in the UK is reliant on a diverse workforce. According to techUK, 18 percent of the sector’s three million workers are foreign born, with one third coming from EU countries. Employers in this sector need to recruit the brightest and the best in this competitive market. If they are not able to do this they will lose out to competitors at home and abroad. Smaller tech companies will suffer the most as they will struggle with the costs and time involved in applying for visas and this could put them at a disadvantage.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not easy to hire workers from outside the EU. At the moment it is only possible to hire a worker from outside the EU under Tier 2 of the Points Based System if their role is at a minimum skill level (NQF level 6) which is effectively a graduate level role and a minimum salary level.
In addition, in most cases employers must advertise the role in two mediums for 28 days to justify why they are not recruiting a resident worker and are sponsoring a worker from outside the EU. It can take three months to secure the work visa and bring the non EU worker to the UK. It can cost in the region of £2,600 for a five year visa and from April 6, 2017 the government has introduced an Immigration Skills Charge which will potentially add £1,000 for every year of the visa. A five year visa will therefore cost an additional £5,000.
The concern for tech companies in the UK is how difficult it will be post Brexit to recruit staff from the EU.
