PlayJobs for the new boys
Published: Monday, 19 May 2008, 12:24PM
Former and current employees at the Shirebrook warehouse of UK’s biggest sports retailer have said that as many as 700 out of about 1000 jobs have been given to Polish migrants and that some jobs have been advertised only to the Polish community, ITV1’s Tonight programme can reveal.
Sports Direct was meant to be the lifeline the town needed - set up and run by Mike Ashley, owner of Newcastle United, and behind high street stores Streetwise Sports and Sports World. The company was given a DTI grant of £1.9 million from the East Midlands Development Agency in support of moving its headquarters to Shirebrook in March 2006.
But Tonight has spoken to up to 30 local residents who have repeatedly tried to get jobs at the factory before and after it opened and were turned down or told there were no positions available.
Their claims feature in Jobs for the New Boys: Tonight, which airs on Monday at 8pm on ITV1, and examines whether or not foreign migrant workers are really doing the jobs that Britons have refused to take.
A current Polish warehouse employee has told Tonight that when Sports Direct relocated from Bedfordshire it brought with it hundreds of existing Polish staff, and then, employed hundreds more Polish.
Polish worker, Lucia, which is not her real name, moved with Sports Direct to the Shirebrook warehouse.
“The invitation was very open - they were offering workers in an agency a contract if they moved with them to Shirebrook. They were promised more money and bonuses and all encouraged to move. That offer was extended to family and friends of Polish workers if they moved too.”
When Tonight asked: “So they the company was actively trying to recruit just Poles?”
She replied: “Generally all the newcomers was the foreign nationals yes.”
Tonight asked: “How many are working in Sports Direct?
She replied: “About 1000”
Tonight asked: “How many Polish?”
“I think about 70 to 80 percent are Polish who work there in the warehouse.”
Lucia said that she had risked her job to do this interview because, she says: “I want to present the fact that the Polish have to work hard on the low wage and at the same time it’s not fair that English workers have it hard to get a job, but it’s not the fault of the Polish, it’s the company’s policy.”
Although there is no official confirmation from Sports Direct on these staff numbers, other sources, including a former worker and union officials who have been trying to represent employees at the warehouse, have given similar figures.
The former staff member, who worked at the plant and left earlier this year, said the company rarely advertises for any new jobs in the warehouse and that those she has seen advertised were in Polish.
She told Tonight: “I’ve seen it on a notice board but it’s written in Polish and I asked a Polish worker what it said and it was basically offering warehouse work but it was in Polish and not English so English have not got a chance because we can’t read Polish to tell our friends.”
Local unemployed lads like twenty year-old Grant Vaughan wanted work, and applied even before the factory opened it gates.
He tells Tonight: “I was still at college at the time but then my girlfriend found out she was pregnant. I thought I would get a job up there, close to home. It would have helped me out with a lot of money but everyone wanted a job up there and they went down the market place and filled out application forms and that. And everyone were buzzing and everyone were going down there saying, ‘I’m gonna get a job down Sports World.’”
But he was turned down and is still seeking full-time employment. Tonight spoke to more than 20 other local lads that had the same experience.
Jamie Tomlinson says: “I applied about four times. Applied via application forms on the internet, all that. Never heard nothing back, been up. Even asked, what’s going on with the application forms. I can’t tell you nothing about it.
Kirk Hutchinson says: “I sent in two application forms- one for the shop, one for the warehouse and then I didn’t hear from them. And then when I went on internet, to get into the warehouse, I filled in another two on there and I still haven’t heard anything back. I’ve been up, I’ve been up there that many times and asked them about it and they’ve just said no, there are no jobs going.”
Ray Holmes, councillor for Shirebrook North West, has been approached by many local people with grievances about Sports World.
He says: “The first thing they come out with is, ‘The Poles have got all the jobs and we’ve got none’, and I have to, I try hard to say, ‘No, it’s not the Poles’ fault. They are over here looking for work for their own families and quite right to do that.”
According to research from Sheffield Hallam University, the unemployment rate in Shirebrook is twice as high as the national average
Sports Direct declined to comment. The local council say they are happy Sports Direct has fulfilled its obligations to provide jobs. It is estimated that it employs 300 local workers. It’s believed that the company’s drivers and shop staff are all local but this was not confirmed.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown last year delivered a speech on securing future British jobs for British workers.
But with the European policy on the free movement of workers bringing in a million and a half new migrant workers here in the UK many believe there’s now no such thing as British jobs for British workers.
It’s no secret that foreign workers have filled the gaps the British don’t want…the NHS, catering, agriculture. But Tonight has interviewed a number of British workers in a number of different regions of the UK that believe they have either lost jobs or not been able to find work because some employers prefer foreign workers.
Tonight travelled to Sheffield where judging by the skyline of cranes, construction appears to be booming.
But three trained joiners Nick, Declan and Kieran from Sheffield are not great fans of European law which let’s so many workers in. They say they’ve seen their work dry up.
Nick Hobson says: “I mean there looks to be a lot of work – and anyone who comes here can see lots of cranes, but it just seems in the last few months in particular lot of firms have said, ‘We only take on the Polish.’”
National statistics on immigration and employment reflect Nick’s experience – that since the UK opened our doors to eastern Europeans in 2004 and as the numbers of new migrant workers went up, Office of National Statistics say employment of UK nationals has gone down by more than 400,000 since 2004.
Tonight tested Nick’s claims that British workers were being turned away for not being Polish by secretly filming him go to three construction sites. Two sites told him there was no work and in the third the following exchange took place:
N - Hi, we’re just looking for some work. Me and me mate. We’re joiners.
Site - I can give you the name of the company we use, but they use Polish labour
N- They only use Polish labour?
S - thing is you will only be wasting your time
N - Why is that because they only take on Polish labour
S - yeah
N - joiners?
S - Yeah
But is it racial discrimination or just a clumsy way of expressing the economic reality – that under European law companies are free to employ foreign workers leaving people like Nick and the Government powerless to prevent it.
Labour MP Frank Field says: “There is no legal requirement and we lack in this country what other countries have and that is the social conventions to prevent foreign workers taking jobs when British workers actually want them. And also you’ve got this amazing situation that the Government can no longer know next year how many people are going to be here, not only seeking work, but actually also using our schools naturally and using our hospitals.”
The Government continues to insist that record levels of immigration leave us all winners. It says they do the jobs the British won’t do, that as the economy expands, there will be more jobs for everyone. And it reminds us that if British workers can’t find work here, they’re free to work abroad.
In an interview with Tonight, Stephen Timms, the Minister of State for Employment and Welfare, said he did not agree with the recent findings from the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee that concluded there was no evidence that foreign workers brought economic benefit.
He says: “I think the House of Lords report says a lot of very sensible things. I disagree with them, however, on that fundamental point. The best estimate we have for the impact on the UK economy is plus six billion pounds on our gross domestic product in 2006.”
However, when our Tonight reporter said that he has not taken into account the cost of immigrants with the schools, the Health Service, the infrastructure, Timms replies:
“I think that it’s not in the six billion figure, no, but the best assessment that I’ve seen; the best evidence that I’ve looked at is that the overall impact, the overall fiscal impact taking account of all of those things is a positive as well. For example very, very few of those who’ve come from Eastern Europe to work in the UK are claiming benefits. Very few are using the Health Service.”