While there may be a case for cheap immigrant labour in some sectors that would be uncompetitive if wages were raised to a decent level to attract British workers, there is no justification for doing this in order to reduce wages in areas that do not suffer from international competition.
Nobody buying a coach or bus ticket in the UK ponders whether to buy this from a foreign competitor.
Coach and bus travel has for years been the cheapest form of transport in the UK. It cannot be a coincidence that PSV drivers are some of the poorest paid transport workers.
Large coach and bus operators have held wages down by bringing in foreign drivers when wages were so low that British drivers could not live on them and were not attracted to the job.
A five or 10% rise in the price of coach travel would not be too much for the market to bear and would make a huge difference to drivers who are often paid as little as minimum wage.
It is imperative that we soon take the opportunity to prevent any further influx of foreign labour in our industry.
Andrew Kelsey
