EU workers have a way to Bailiwick jobs

Bypassing the UK’s new post-Brexit points-based system was essential if the islands were to hire enough staff for jobs within the already hard-hit hospitality and caring industries.

The turnaround after the UK announced its new immigration system just months ago has been rapid and gives hope that, with flexible thinking and quick action, further challenges thrown up by the Brexit transition can also be overcome.

Hoteliers, publicans and employers in the care home industry will have been relieved that both their existing EU/EEA and Swiss staff and new ones can now work in the Common Travel Area.

Workshops will help iron out the final details. One key element employers and staff will be keen to understand is how much it will all cost. The UK’s list of visas is intimidatingly long and some amount to several hundred pounds.

Add that to Guernsey’s own charge for a combined immigration and Population Management work permit and lower paid staff could find it too high an initial barrier.

More positively, it may be that young waiters, cleaners and bar staff from the EU who are keen to learn English and work in a ‘British’ hotel, restaurant or home will find that, from January, the Bailiwick is the easiest option given the UK’s insistence on a skill-based regime, a minimum basic salary of £26,500 and intermediate level English.

Ironically, the much-maligned Population Management – regarded by many as an anachronism – has been of use here, offering Guernsey the legitimate chance to show the UK that we have our own immigration controls established and the island does not offer some sort of anarchic free-for-all within the Common Travel Area.

Entry clearance visas will still need to be obtained from the UK and islanders will hope the islands might benefit there from the obligatory criminality checks the UK has embedded in its new system to weed out the worst offenders at the first opportunity.