Equality of Opportunity Committee

Inquiry into Migrant Workers

Response from Rhondda Cynon Taf

Introduction

In 2005 the Rhondda Cynon Taf Multi-Agency Forum Against Racial Harassment (MAF) discussed the growing issue of Migrant Workers within the local community and the problems they faced.

As a result of this discussion a Migrant Workers Forum was established, the aim of which was to provide a multi agency approach to the immediate social issues arising from an increasing migrant worker population in the borough.

The Forum is made up of a wide variety of statutory and voluntary organisations in the County Borough of Rhonda Cynon Taf. It aims to help to respond to the increasing demands being placed on the services of voluntary advice agencies, e.g. Valleys Race Equality Council (VALREC), citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) and Victim Support together with the concerns of statutory organisations especially the Local Authority and South Wales Police conscious of the potential impact locally of numbers of migrant workers on social cohesion.

There has been an increase in the number of contract workers from other EU countries coming to fill the gaps in the local labour market. Hitherto, most of the contract workers were brought over by employment agencies but with the lifting of travelling restrictions to new EU members most migrant workers are finding their way to the UK including the valley areas of South Wales.

Preliminary indications are that the majority of recent migrant workers are Polish, Portuguese, Estonians, Lithuanians, Bulgarians, Slovaks and Filipinos.

A mapping exercise carried out by VALREC revealed that most of the migrant workers are employed in the transport, food processing, and hospitality and health sectors.

Problems Identified

The following problems related to migrant workers have been identified and or can be anticipated now and in the near future.

Community tension resulting in racial abuse and harassment in the wider community.

Lack of clarity about employment rights and arbitrary treatment from employers.
Pressure on housing and other services resulting in overcrowding and housing backlogs.
Bullying in the workplace.
Migrant workers not understanding the role of the Police, especially as some of the workers come from countries with problems of governance.
Difficulties in registering with GPs, obtaining bank accounts and drivers licences.
School admission policy for children of migrant workers.
Accessing ESOL classes. Most migrant workers can benefit from additional English lessons.
Absence of social and cultural networks.
Lack of monitoring information and no strategic approach to gathering of information on numbers, nationalities, and areas settled in etc.
Lack of funding to develop and deliver assistance programmes.

Action Taken

PAWB Project - Rhondda Cynon Taf Libraries

The project was developed as a result of library staff in Pontypridd Library raising the issue of difficulty in assisting customers whose first language is not English.

An influx of migrant workers in the Pontypridd area (mainly Polish or Eastern Europeans) working for local bus companies and retailers led to an increase in demand for library services, particularly access to the internet which is used by migrant workers to keep in touch with their families in their home country.

The public access to the Internet in libraries is very strictly governed and migrant workers experienced problems both in completing the required forms and in being unable to understand the warning messages generated by the system as these are in English.

The PAWB project is a website http://library.rhondda-cynon-taf.gov.uk/pawb that provides information on how to access library services in a variety of languages. It also provides links to other sites such as Embassies, NHS Direct, and Police; the site uses flags as language icons to enable users to identify the appropriate country as some countries have a number of different languages.

Banking Arrangements

One of the issues identified was lack of access to bank accounts, VALREC worked with the Pontypridd branch of the Nat West Bank to provide accounts for Polish workers.

Polish banking services i.e. telephone banking, internet banking, money transfer facilities and dedicated Polish language translators are now available at Nat West in Pontypridd.

Migrant Workers Forum

The Migrant Workers Forum was set up in February 2007 (Terms of Reference enclosed) and is made up of a variety of organisations and agencies from the public, private and voluntary sectors including employers.

The Forum has identified three main priority areas to be addressed in 2007 - 2008:

Language Barriers
Access to Information
Support Networks

An action plan (enclosed) has been developed to deliver solutions to these problems. The main issue in delivering the action plan is funding.

Conclusion

There are a multitude of problems faced by Migrant Workers in local communities that impact on the provision of services by public authorities and local agencies.

There is willingness by all involved to work together to provide solutions to these problems.

The main barriers to allowing this to happen are:

Lack of cohesion in approach, no strategic direction, opportunities for partnership working being lost because of this
Lack of information
Lack of funding