Emergency visas are issued for truck drivers and turkey cakes to save Christmas
The crisis for truck drivers in Britain has reached unprecedented proportions. Queues erupted in front of gas stations over the weekend after some fuel companies warned they could not fulfill all orders due to a lack of tanker drivers. In some places, there were even clashes between nervous people who waited for hours to charge their cars.
One of the major suppliers, EG Group, had to introduce a £ 30 refueling limit at nearly 400 service stations to allow more people to be served.
Transport Minister Grant Shaps assured that there was no problem with fuel supplies, and urged people not to panic and overstock, as happened on weekends when
even tube drivers showed up,
which has not happened since
70s of last century
There has been a shortage of around 100,000 truck drivers in the UK for months, with some food supplies being the first to be affected.
As early as the summer, several professional organizations came out with a request to the British government to introduce temporary fast visas for 10,000 EU circulators, as things will get worse before Christmas, when consumption in the UK has traditionally increased.
However, the authorities tried to solve the problem by allowing the available drivers to work overtime and speed up the courses and tests for new ones. They stubbornly refused to allow driver’s visas for fear that it could undermine their new post-Brexit immigration policy, which aims to attract only highly qualified professionals.
Frightened by the battle scenes in front of gas stations and empty storefronts in recent days, they decided to issue 10,500 emergency visas next month. 5,000 of them will be for drivers, and 5,500 for workers in poultry farms, where else
missing workers for knees
of the traditional Christmas turkeys
However, they will be valid for only three months, which according to many representatives of the food industry will not solve any problem. The British Chamber of Commerce compared the authorities’ tactics of throwing water with a thimble on a raging fire.
Moreover, in a number of European countries such as France and Germany, for example, there is also a shortage of truck drivers and it is unlikely that anyone will give up their job in the EU to come to the UK in just three months.
That is why some commentators have described the government’s actions as arrogant and far from the reality that Britain has found itself in because of its exit from the EU and the pandemic.
During the coronavirus crisis, around 25,000 Europeans working in the transport sector chose to go to their home countries. After the fall of the coronavirus restrictions on the Island at the end of July, only 600 of them chose to return, despite the fact that drivers’ salaries have increased significantly. They already
passed those of lawyers and
architects and are over 50,000
pounds per year, or 115,000 levs
However, there are no applicants. The reason is that hiring them back is no longer so easy. Because of Brexit after January, they need to have a work visa to get to work in the UK, which is difficult to obtain.
In addition, many international drivers are paid per kilometer instead of an hour, so delays at borders due to customs checks following the UK’s exit from the EU cost them money.
Government sources claim that Prime Minister Boris
Johnson will send personal
letters to 40,000 retirees
truck drivers
with a request to return temporarily to work to help the nation overcome the crisis.
Such an approach took place during the pandemic, after it turned out that no one would harvest from the English fields, because Eastern European seasonal workers also chose to return to their homelands. Then, however, very few Englishmen responded, and those who did so left quickly, as the field work proved to be unbearably difficult for them. And a crisis for workers is taking place in a number of sectors, so they may find something better for themselves.
According to national statistics, there are currently 1.9 million job vacancies in the UK. We are looking for over 55,000 employees in social homes, 36,000 cooks and over 32,000 shop assistants.
According to financial experts, if the authorities do not take any more radical measures to address labor shortages, this will begin to affect the country’s economic growth.
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