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Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

My Lords, I speak to Amendment No. 23, which is included in the group that we are discussing. I introduced a rather similar amendment in Grand Committee. This one is rather shorter but is concerned with the use by employers of migrant workers as cheap labour. In Grand Committee, perhaps because of the way in which I spoke about the possibility of regularising illegal workers, much of the discussion—and, indeed, the response of my noble friend the Minister—dealt with the whole issue of the employment of illegal workers. The main objective of my amendment is to draw attention to the fact that there are unscrupulous employers who will exploit migrant workers if they can get away with it and that everything possible should be done to make sure that they do not. I have already drawn attention in previous debates to the way in which the Director General of the CBI has welcomed immigration on the ground that it deals with ““wage inflation””; in other words, it keeps the general level of wages down. Migrant workers are willing to work for low wages; they are often quite unaware of the existence of minimum wage rates or of health and safety conditions and are much too scared to take issue with their employer even if they are aware of them. Many of them are sending part of their earnings home to families who are even poorer than they are. Of course, a suspicion that migrant workers are undercutting wage levels does not help race relations. I am glad that trade unions are recruiting among migrant workers and doing their best to improve wages and conditions. However, there are problems. On the BBC’s ““Politics Show”” at the weekend there was discussion of this whole issue. It is clear that some people think that a free market in labour is keeping down the general level of wages and is therefore to be welcomed. That is all very well; large profits can be made but, of course, as usual, the very poor pay for it. For that reason my amendment refers to the right to join unions and to participate in workshop organisations. I hope that this time round my noble friend the Minister will be willing to respond sympathetically to the wording of the amendment. As I said earlier, in Grand Committee and, I believe, at Second Reading, the possibility of migrant workers undercutting the general level of wages is not a very good idea in this country. It can lead to a worsening of race relations and make employment relations that much more difficult. I therefore hope that my noble friend will be prepared to view what I have said with sympathy.