Morning:
6°c
2012 chiefs admit only one in eight jobs go to local Britons
Matthew Beard, Olympics Editor21 Apr 2010
JUST one in eight jobs on the Olympic site have gone to local British workers, Games chiefs admitted today.
The Olympic Delivery Authority has been forced to reveal that just 828 workers out of the total 6,277 workers on the Olympic site are Britons who live locally, in the most revealing snapshot of employment on the site.
The disclosure, following a Freedom of Information request, will be seized upon by critics of the Government after Gordon Brown promised that the £9.3bn Olympic project would deliver "British jobs for British workers".
The ODA agreed to release the local employment figures under the FOI Act after a six-month campaign by East End resident David Isted.
Mr Isted, a shipping industry worker from Waltham Forest, said: "I have been trying to hold the Government to account for their promise that the Olympics would bring jobs and training to local people. It has been a huge struggle"
Of the remaining 1,230-strong "local" workforce resident in the five Olympic boroughs - which comprise Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Greenwich and Waltham Forest - 412 said they were foreigners.
Mr Isted also claimed that the ODA boosted employment figures by including trainees, which make up 10 per cent of the workforce. But the ODA said many trainees were fully-fledged site workers who were receiving on-the-job training for more skilled work.
The ODA said the proportion of foreign 2012 workers based in the Olympics boroughs did not prove it had become a magnet for a migrant workforce but instead reflected the long-standing ethnic diversity of the five Olympic boroughs. The ODA says it has taken measures to boost local employment.
Reader views (8)
Structural steel erecting is a very specialised job and no-one should expect those people all to come from the local area. That argument, however, doesn't apply to all building jobs.
Stratford City opens for shopping months before the Olympic Games and you should see a much higher proportion of local among those 8,000 jobs from day one.
The site for the Crossrail tunnelling academy is in Newham. Would a Tory government delay it?
- Alan Griffiths, Forest Gate, LONDON, 01/05/2010 17:44
Report abuse
Did you notice how the ODA have confused the words "migrant workers" with ethnicity? They are playing the old racist trick to try and stop any comment. In the five host Boroughs we have a full range of colours, creeds and religions, all of which are British and all have the right to work. Let us keep our eye on the ball and help the local British unemployed by way of training and employment. Any other Country in Europe and further afield, spending billions of pounds of tax payers money would have this type of system in place, believe me.
- David Isted, London, 20/04/2010 19:18
Report abuse
Are we going to carry on arguing about this until the games are actualy in action,please send some of these people home soon,!!!! NOW.
- Davey_bouy, Chertsey, 20/04/2010 18:18
Report abuse
I was recently told about a young man apprenticed to be a plumber. Because of the red tape and vast expensive annual exams imposed by this government, the firm folded three years into his apprentice. In eighteen months he has not be able to get a job anywhere. He lives in Stratford.
British Jobs for British workers, what a farce. The only person I have heard mention apprentices is Cameron and the conservative shadow buisness minister.
- ALAN,, ENGLAND., 20/04/2010 16:21
Report abuse
DC, London I take great offence at your remark. I know of many (my own 30yr old son included)men who have tried to get work on the Olympic site only to be turned away.
They are NOT lazy, their crime is they are white English lads, I also work in Stratford and can assure you the vast majority are Eastern European's.
MJ, EAnglia - I have not bought a lottery ticket for years, however, part of my council tax is paid to the IOC!
- Mrs, London, England, 20/04/2010 16:10
Report abuse
Well what do you expect from an un-skilled, un-educated British workforce. Who deserves the job more, a lazy local who shows no initiative and thinks everything should be handed to them on a plate or an enthusiastic foreign lad who has learnt English, wants to increase his skills and is prepared to work hard. I know which one I'd rather employ.
- DC, London, 20/04/2010 15:36
Report abuse
What a disgrace. Well then we should all stop buying that Lottery ticket which pays some of the Olmypic costs. British Jobs for British workers.. Oh yea.. Gordon Brown, you are a bare faced liar... again.
- MJ, East Anglia, 20/04/2010 15:07
Report abuse
Playing into the hands of the BNP and there ilk. Expect a protest vote of huge proportions.
- Lance Johnson, Canterbury, Kent, 20/04/2010 14:03
Report abuse
