Have your say on visa and immigration changes
30/09/2019
UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT) is urging UK fashion and textile companies to help collate an industry response to the Migration Advisory Committee’s call for evidence on a Salary Threshold and Points-Based System.
The call for evidence asks for individuals and organisations to contribute to enable the Government to define the future system of salary thresholds and the level at which they could be set.
The existing salary to be paid for an occupation is set at the 25th percentile of the full-time earnings distribution measured using ASHE, or £30,000, whichever is higher but this leads to a wide range of thresholds depending on the occupation and there are a number of exceptions. Read more here.
In September 2018, the Migration Advisory Committee published its report looking at EEA migrants in the UK. Within this report the MAC made a range of recommendations for the future immigration system including the recommendation to “Maintain existing salary thresholds for all migrants under Tier 2 (General)”.
UKFT believes that the existing salary threshold of £30,000 is too high for vital roles in our industry such as sewing machinists and weavers.
In the December 2018 White Paper on the UK’s future skills-based immigration system, the Government accepted most of the MAC’s recommendations, but the salary threshold recommendation was only partially accepted. The Government is engaging with businesses and employers as to what level salary thresholds should be set at.
In its commissioning letter to the MAC, the Government has now asked the MAC to further look into the issue of salary thresholds. The commission sets out a range of potential options when setting a threshold for the MAC to consider including a single minimum threshold with some flexibility, a going rate for roles or a combination of the two.
UKFT chief executive Adam Mansell said: “We are encouraging all businesses who rely on talented overseas workers to take this opportunity to make their voices heard by the Government about the true impact that these changes could have on their workforce and businesses.
“Our online template features key questions from the call for evidence and should only take around 5 minutes to complete but will be essential in representing the effect of changes to the migration policy on our sector.”
The survey is available here and UKFT will be submitting the responses to the Committee on behalf of the industry.
The deadline for responses is 11th October. If you have any further questions, please email Tara.Hounslea@ukft.org or call 0207 843 9460.
More details on the call for evidence are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/salary-threshold-and-points-based-system-pbs-commission-call-for-evidence.