I think I just heard a positive about Brexit !

[SilentSister]

CEO of Travelodge on BBC News this morning, because they have increased profits etc etc talking about the issues with European workers returning home and trouble recruiting staff.

In order to retain existing staff, and encourage UK applicants, they are now offering full contracts, rather than zero hours, and increasing salaries. They are also going to target older/returning to work mums etc, by offering flexible part-time contracts.

I work in the public sector and we have not been able to recruit for mid-skills jobs for years - no candidates.

I always reserve a touch of scepticism about such claims, having been on the inside with bosses who want the earth for £18,000 a year and then complain "there's no skills out there". Er, yes there are. But at £30,000 a year - which you won't pay.

DG that is partly my point. In some sectors it doesn't matter if there is a labour shortage - management have no leeway to put wages up or change working conditions, Brexit or no Brexit. In my sector we are bound by a mixture of professional qualifications, union agreements and nationwide pay brackets.

For the record the post we are trying to fill is permanent and pays £25k which IMO is not bad for one of the poorest areas in the country.

I work in the public sector now and we have been able to recruit. Shite pay, tolerably family friendly working conditions.
No, we aren't Travelodge

I just quit my OK pay public sector job, there aren't many angles I wasn't fucked from in that role.

Justifying 1/2 million per year funding reduction for disability services is something I swore I would NEVER do again, I don't know if the public really and truly get whats happened to public service - it just doesn't exist anymore.

Austerity agenda leading to funding reductions, driving lower cost contracts has meant that the biggest cost (premises or people) needs to be reduced. Once the premises footprint is reduced, you're left with reducing the workforce cost either by de-skilling (no need for experience, pay them 10k less), headcount reduction (someone leaves, workload passed to rest of team and vacant post offered up to savings) or just plain asset sweating (job re-badged from case officer to worker and you 'virtually' manage 90 clients rather than 30, where you have two nurses - get one qualified nurse and two HCA's then share the cost over two counties in a virtual clinic).

25K is great for experienced admin, but shite for a social worker - but depends totally on your local jobs market. I know my local authority wouldn't recruit a 25K, they'd put it out as an apprenticeship or an 18K.

In my opinion, this will not stop whichever way Brexit goes - it's just pure conservatism - the Brexit fiasco just provides a handy illusion of an imperative for action.