Computer firm 'abused' visa rules

TROUBLED computer consultancy Xansa has been accused of abusing a fast-track visa system to import foreign IT workers - even though thousands of trained British staff are out of work.

About 21,000 foreign IT workers arrive in the UK every year and compete with a pool of British specialists who have been laid off.

Three years ago, Financial Mail exposed Xansa - then known as FI Group - for offering its employees a £1,000 bonus for every colleague they could earmark for replacement by cheaper labour recruited from India.

Now, the Professional Contractors' Group has accused the company of flouting regulations to bring in workers despite the Home Office officially ending a scheme to fast-track highly skilled workers through the visa system.

PCG director Gurdial Rai told Financial Mail: 'Last September, the Government officially said there was no shortage of IT skills in the UK. But after an initial drop in visas, we have seen thousands of workers brought in.

'We have just passed a dossier to the Home Office about one FTSE 100 company and we have hundreds of reports from members, other independent-contractors and full-time employees at a string of firms across the UK saying that the system is being abused.'

According to the PCG, companies can use two methods to bring in foreign staff. BT was criticised by the Communications Workers' Union last month for bringing over computer staff from its Indian subsidiary, Mahindra. The staff could avoid the normal visa process because they already worked for BT.

Rai said another common method firms used was to advertise a job at a rate so low that most British workers would not apply, before being granted leave to bring in workers from abroad.

'I have thousands of complaints,' said Rai. 'The biggest offenders are the firms we call body shops because they just hire out bodies to other firms.'

Rai said the PCG had just passed a dossier about workers at energy giant National Grid Transco to the Home Office. He said the dossier outlined how project workers were brought over supposedly to plug skills gaps but had to be trained to do their jobs.

'This is not the first time we've complained to the Home Office, but this time we have put together a detailed document,' he said. 'We hope action will be taken.'

The PCG said other companies were also involved in importing workers. Rai said: 'The companies that hire out contractors get the biggest complaints - most are about Xansa, Wipro and TCS.

'Many of the workers end up at FTSE 100 companies, including Transco, HBoS and Barclaycard.'

A Xansa spokesman said: 'The only way in which Xansa brings people into the UK from overseas is via tier one intra-company transfers. It is not our strategy or practice to replace any UK employees with an overseas person brought to the UK.'