Working rights restrictions to continue for Bulgarian and Romanian nationals
Controls restricting the rights of Bulgarian and Romanian nationals to work in the UK will be updated at the end of the year. The UK Border Agency (UKBA) has announced that it will continue restrictions until the end of 2013 in an announcement made on 23 November 2011.Under the restrictions Romanian and Bulgarian nationals will continue to need permission from the UKBA in order to work in the UK.
Romanian and Bulgarian nationals face restricted rights to work in the UK because they are new members of the EU. Every country in the EU has the right to enforce restrictions on working rights for nationals of new member countries. The UK is one of the ten EU countries which has such restrictions in place.
The government had to decide whether or not to renew controls by the end of the year under EU law. The government can keep the controls in place for a maximum of another two years before EU law requires they are lifted.
Immigration Minister, Damian Green, said, ‘The Migration Advisory Committee has made a clear case for extending the existing restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians. This government has also made clear that we will always introduce transitional controls on all new EU member states as a matter of course.’
MAC report
The UKBA has based its decision to renew the restrictions in part on the recent report published by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), Review of the transitional restrictions on access of Bulgarian and Romanian nationals to the UK labour market. (PDF, 993KB).
The MAC found in the report that, ‘that the UK labour market is in a state of serious disturbance’ and that ‘maintaining existing restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian nationals’ access to the labour market would assist in addressing the serious ... disturbance’. However, ‘The extent to which maintaining existing restrictions would assist in addressing any such disturbance is, however, subject to considerable uncertainty’.
Requirements for permission to work
Permission to work will normally be given only where the worker has a specific job offer and the work is in skilled employment for which the employer has been unable to find a suitably qualified resident worker. There are also quota-based arrangements for lower skilled jobs in the agricultural and food processing sectors which will stay at the same level for 2012 and 2013.
The extension of the restrictions does not affect the position of those who have already been authorised to take employment in the UK.
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