"We have written to ministers asking them to reverse this decision and give prison officers an exemption because we need the staff they are forcing out of the country, but they won't give it to us," he said. "It is because they are pandering to Reform: they want to seem tough on immigration and reduce the level of overseas workers. But as a result, prisons will be harder to manage, staff morale will plummet and hard-working colleagues will be forced to leave the country. It is a disgraceful way to treat them."
"This really matters for us as there are well over 1,000 prison officers who only have a limited right to work in the UK and are reliant on securing a skilled worker visa to be able to continue to work. People from overseas, particularly those from African nations, have accounted for about 80% of applications for prison officer jobs. It costs about 10,000 to recruit and train every prison officer and now governors are having to sack people when their right to work comes to an end."
A rule change in July makes overseas prison officers whose contracts need renewal ineligible for skilled worker visas if paid below 41,700. More than 1,000 staffed roles, mainly filled by workers from African countries, face potential termination and forced return. Recruitment and training for each officer costs about 10,000, increasing the financial and operational impact of losing staff. Union and governor representatives warned of falling morale, harder-to-manage prisons and serious staffing shortages. Government decisions on migration and visa thresholds are directly affecting the stability of the prison workforce.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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