Lawyer Monthly Magazine - February 2020 Edition

Monthly Roundup News Up to a third of UK-based EU nationals are yet to secure their UK settled status, risking the stability of UK businesses. Over a million Europeans living in the UK haven’t yet secured their status, despite the success rate of applications to date being over 99.9%. In No- vember, of 305,600 EUSS applications, just one was refused on suitability grounds. Many are thought to be putting off filling in their forms, don’t understand what’s expected of them or are one of 362,000 stuck in the backlog of applications being pro- cessed by the Home Office. Of this figure, the vast majority are in employment (83% of 16 - 65-year-olds), and the remaining individuals are thought to be children or other family members. The new research, com- piled by The AIRE Centre, a legal charity specialising in European Law, reveals the scale of the threat to UK businesses depend- ent on EU nationals to en- sure the smooth running of their operations. The research was presented this evening at a central London event alongside details of support for businesses wishing to maintain their workforce. EU nationals make up seven per cent of the UK labour market, with key sectors of British busi- ness reliant on their con- tribution. Industries cen- tred around low-skilled factory and construction jobs are particularly de- pendent on EU workers, with 21 per cent of the workforce born outside of the UK in wider Eu- rope. Retail and manufac- turing will be particularly hard hit, with 50% of all EU nationals working in these industries (26% re- tail, 24% manufacturing). There is no salary thresh- old to apply for settled status in the UK, howev- er, if the EUSS deadline is missed by lower-paid EU workers, it is predicted they may not be permit- ted to settle in the UK ever again, which could be catastrophic for busi- ness and these individu- als. More than 75 per cent of EU nationals from newer member states earn less than £28,000 and a large proportion of EU nationals from these areas earn the lowest of all UK employed national- ities, with a median earn- ing of £21,000 per year. Matthew Evans, Director at The AIRE Centre said: “The future salary thresh- old for EU nationals com- ing to work in post-Brexit Britain has been well publicised at a possible £30,000. For many, their income will fall below this level and understand- ably, they are worried about completing their applications for fear of being rejected. It is vital we debunk this myth, and employers take action to ensure their workers are guided through the EUSS process to secure the status and rights that they are eligible for and to prevent disruption to business operations.” Any future EU employees will need to be living in the UK before it leaves the EU to apply, potential- ly leaving just 16 days for them to arrive in the UK. Of those who have ap- plied already, 41% were granted ‘pre-settled sta- tus’ only, meaning their long-term ability to work in the UK is less certain, lasting a guaranteed five years only. With the fu- ture pipeline of EU work- ers at risk, it is even more vital that UK businesses hold on to their current workforce, particularly as individuals from EU na- tions are likely to be over- qualified for the roles they have in the UK. Madeleine Sumption, Di- rector at the Migration UK Industries at Risk: A Third of EU Nationals Are yet to Secure Their UK Settled Status BREXIT Observatory, University of Oxford who provided the labour market data to The AIRE Centre said: “EU workers are employed right across the UK la- bour market, from sci- ence and research posi- tions to low-wage factory jobs. More than half of highly educated workers born in new EU member states were in low and medium low-skilled jobs in 2018. This means they are more likely to work in jobs for which they are over-qualified, one of the reasons EU citizens have been so attractive to UK employers. A range of industries have become quite dependent on this workforce. “The government faces a big challenge getting all EU citizens through the Settlement Scheme. Re- gardless of how easy it is to apply and how well the scheme is communi- cated, there will inevitably be people who simply don’t realise that they have to do it. This chal- lenge is compounded by the fact that there are no accurate figures on how many people are eligible to apply: the most com- monly used estimate of 3.4 million is almost cer- tainly too low. So it’s pos- sible that thousands of EU citizens could fail to apply without this being clear from the data. One of the big questions for the next couple of years will therefore be whether the deadline is extended or, as some have suggest- ed, removed entirely.” EU-born workers are far more likely to work some type of shift work. Seven per cent work night shifts and 17 per cent some other type of shift work– a far higher proportion than those who are UK born. A significant share (eight per cent) also take on non-permanent roles in comparison to their UK counterparts (five per cent), and are more likely than UK employees to take zero hours contracts (three per cent v two per cent), evidencing the flex- ibility the workforce pro- vides UK industries. Matthew Evans conclud- ed: “The contribution EU workers make to the UK economy and to busi- ness is unquestioned, but many are put off by the red tape and complicat- ed process. Businesses need to take action now, and failing to do this is tantamount to ignoring a ticking time-bomb on a boardroom table.” Source: AIRE Centre (www.airecentre.org) 16 WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM | FEB 2020