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Date:	16th May 2007
Source:	Building Talk

 

UK building industry now relies on new EU workers

 

One of the UK’s leading curtain walling and cladding companies, English Architectural Glazing (EAG), has issued a stark warning that without new migrant EU workers the building industry could collapse.

 

Managing Director of Suffolk based EAG, Simon Gladwin, says firms are now relying on workers from new EU member nations such as Poland in order to meet the workload on their order books.

 

Mr Gladwin said: “Many residents of EU countries are bringing their vast skills to the UK and they are very welcome because without them arriving, companies would experience great difficulty recruiting skilled staff and therefore would not meet contract deadlines. We need this influx in light of the lack of a skilled UK workforce.”

 

EAG employs a number of Polish residents who travel to the UK to work, returning to their native Poland every few weeks. Their overheads while working in Britain are low and they take the vast bulk of their wages back home. EAG stresses that it pays the same rate to Polish workers as UK employees and does not consider them to be a cheap alternative.

 

Mr Gladwin added: “We are noticing that many of the EU workers are formerly trained in other professions such as medicine and accountancy; not being able to find work in their own countries in these disciplines many re-train for building work and arrive in the UK. I thoroughly admire their tenacity and we at EAG are delighted to employ them. However, I am greatly concerned that with so much construction work in the UK and with the 2012 Olympic Games just around the corner we are facing a real crisis in Britain with not enough British workers being available to meet all the demands.”

 

EAG are now calling on the Government to provide more funding for training courses in construction and encourage more young people to join the building trade.

 

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