Industry puts pressure on Government over post-Brexit labour policies
The travel industry is calling on the UK Government to make sure travel and tourism businesses can still get the staff they need after Brexit.
ABTA says current proposals to restrict immigration to those with qualifications, and to impose a minimum salary of £30,000 would be ‘particularly problematic’ for the travel industry.
It has welcomed news that the Migration Advisory Committee is to conduct a further review of salary thresholds and says the industry must submit evidence to call for a more flexible regime.
The call comes after new ABTA research revealed the average salary for employees in the tourism industry is £23,000, considerably lower than the £29,000 UK average.
The research also found:
– travel and tourism directly provides 1.52m jobs in the UK – equivalent to 4.8% of all employment in the UK
– 27% of tourism workers are under 30, which is 10% more than the UK average
– the number of non-UK nationals working in travel and tourism is nearly a third higher than UK average (13% vs 10%)
– the majority of workers in the industry are educated to GCSE level or equivalent (36%)
– 6.5% of tourism workers have completed an apprenticeship.
ABTA is encouraging the UK Government and its EU counterparts to agree reciprocal labour rules that enable the benefits of the Posted Workers Directive to be replicated for travel workers.
It is calling for amendments to the current proposals around a temporary regime for low-skilled workers or the youth mobility scheme, for workers under 30.
ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer said: "Now is the time that the industry needs to be very clear with Government what the UK travel and tourism sector needs from a future skills and jobs approach in order to ensure the industry can continue to grow and thrive.
"It is important the Government truly understands the UK travel and tourism labour market in order to ensure it develops the right long-term approach to immigration and skills development."
Luke Petherbridge, head of public affairs at ABTA, added: "The ability to deploy staff flexibly within the EU has been a critical component of the success of the UK travel industry. As the UK departs the EU, there needs to be a regime – or multiple regimes – that replace the combined role of freedom of movement, and the Posted Workers Directive, enabling temporary EU-based employment for critical UK travel workers."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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