It's A Free World... (2007) :: Production Notes

Directed by Ken Loach
Written by Paul Laverty

Background

Hundreds of thousands of migrants have come to Britain since the enlargement of the European Union in 2004. Many are prospering. They are net contributors to the Exchequer.

But those at the bottom of the heap - the unskilled, the non-English speakers - are becoming a new kind of workforce. They come expecting a reasonable wage, and in the belief that they will work full time. Instead, they find themselves part of a vast and transient pool of casual day labourers, not knowing each morning whether they will be working or not, and often bonded to their employer by debt and circumstance.

Britain is more than happy to have them: jobs get done that Britons won't do¹. Employers know that businesses would suffer without migrant labour, in fact migrant workers are sometimes preferred over UK nationals, particularly in the agricultural, hotel and catering sectors². They are preferred because migrant workers are generally better qualified³ and they offer 'flexibility.'⁴

'Flexibility' is a loaded euphemism. Although some migrant workers don't want to be tied down to solid contracts, more often 'flexibility' means a workforce that can be hired, fired, mistreated and underpaid with impunity.

And in return for their flexibility these workers get very few rights in return. They might, for example, be offered temporary, non-renewable grants of leave. But temporary leave stops workers enforcing their workplace rights, as it usually requires at least twelve months in a job to challenge unfair dismissal.⁵

Some of these workers may be working illegally. But it is one of the crowning ironies of the system that the features characteristic of the deregulated economy - recruitment agencies, the use of outsourcing and contractors; lengthy sub-contracting chains - all obscure and facilitate forced labour, trafficked labour and illegal migrants. Papers get lost, someone else is to blame, and that suits everyone very nicely. It is no coincidence that, under the current system, employers are punished solely for the administrative failure of not having checked documents. If the Government really wanted to tackle exploitation, employers would be punished primarily for employing migrants in exploitative conditions.

What action is the Government taking? In the 2004 Warwick Agreement, Labour pledged to introduce domestic legislation to protect temporary workers, should the EU fail to reach consensus on a European Directive. It is now widely recognised that such a consensus is unlikely (due, inevitably, to efforts by some EU governments to maintain 'flexibility' in their labour markets).

On January 30 this year, a private member's bill, the Temporary Agency Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Bill, was brought by Paul Farrelly, the Labour MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme. It sought to give agency workers the same rights as full time staff on key issues including basic wages, sick and holiday pay. UK trade unions believed that the bill would meet Labour's Warwick Agreement commitment. But it failed to make it through a second reading on March 2 due to 'lack of parliamentary time'. Evidently some institutions are more flexible than others.

1. A London study by Queen Mary College found migrants constituted 90 per cent of low-paid workers in cleaning, hospitality, home care and food processing
2. Home Office, 2006
3. In their London study Evans et al (2005) found that 49 per cent of low paid migrant workers had obtained at least a tertiary qualification before entering the UK
4. Home Office, 2006
5. JCWI Bulletin, 2005

Sources

• Anderson B et al (2006), Fair enough? Central and East European Migrants in Low Wage Employment in the UK, COMPAS www.compas.ox.ac.uk
• Anderson B and Rogaly B (2005), Forced Labour and Migration to the UK, COMPAS and Trades Union Congress www.tuc.org.uk
• Clark N, 'The Labour Market, Workers' Rights and Migration' JCWI Bulletin, JCWI (Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants), Spring 2005
• Evans Y et al (2005), Making the City Work: Low Paid Employment in London, Queen Mary University London, www.geog.qmul.ac.uk
• Düvell F and Jordan B (2002), The Immigrants' Perspective: Migration Patterns, Migration Strategies and Identities in the UK, University of Exeter
• Home Office (2006), Employers' Use of Migrant Labour

Synopsis »