Tazskool

Wondered why your new star signing does not get a WP... and why you fail with appeals??

Here is a brief look into the REAL LAWS of Work Permits.
---------------------------------------------



Football is seldom far from the news and yet another debate was started recently following reports that the government planned to relax the rules on granting work permits for footballers from outside the EEA. This provoked a considerable reaction from a number of parties, not least the clubs and the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA). The government has recently announced the relevant changes, apparently as an attempt to boost standards of football in this country .

The rules relating to the issue of work permits are governed by the Work Permit Scheme which is administered by the Overseas Labour Service (OLS) section of the Department for Education and Employment. The Work Permit Scheme is only relevant to those individuals from outside the EEA, since freedom of movement of workers within the EEA is a well-established principle under Article 39 (formerly Article 48) of the EC Treaty. The rationale behind the Work Permit Scheme is to protect the interests of the EEA workforce by restricting the number of overseas workers who are able to work in the UK. In relation to footballers, the overall criterion is that a player from outside the EEA must make a significant contribution to the game in the UK. However, there are also more specific criteria that have been agreed with the football authorities. Prior to the recent announcement, these were that:

* Work permits would only be issued to clubs for current international players who have an acceptable international reputation. Such a player would be expected to have played in his international 'A' team for at least the past two seasons and to have participated in approximately 75% of his country's competitive matches during that period.
* If a footballer's work permit were to be extended, then that player would be expected to have been a regular member of his club's first team by playing in the region of 75% of first team games.
* All clubs must provide evidence that they have undertaken a genuine and thorough search of the resident labour market of the UK/EEA, and that no suitable resident player is available.
* Salaries offered to players from outside the EEA should be at the top end of the club's wage structure, unless exceptional circumstances apply, and the total earnings of the club's highest-paid player must be disclosed.

Margaret Hodge, Minister for Employment and Equal Opportunities, and Tony Banks, Minister for Sport, announced the changes to the work permit criteria on 2 July. A non-EEA player will still have to prove that he has played in 75% of his international team's matches over the previous two years to qualify. However, the Fifa rankings of the player's national side will now be taken into consideration. This is designed to lead to fewer professionals coming from smaller, less established footballing countries. However, the OLS has not yet expanded on exactly how this will operate. The minimum annual salary requirement will also be removed so that it is no longer only the wealthier clubs that will be able to afford such players. The PFA believes that the higher wages criterion was there to ensure that only top-quality players were granted work permits. By not taking wages into account, this could lead to players coming to this country who are not better, but merely cheaper.

Previously, work permits had to be renewed each year, and this has also been relaxed so that work permits will be issued for the length of a player's contract, but only for a maximum of three years. This will reduce the administrative burden on clubs, which previously had to apply for extensions to work permits and prove that the player has played in 75% of first team games played in the previous season each year.

A further change is that an appeals panel will be established that will consider applications and make a recommendation on cases that do not meet all the criteria, but where evidence has been provided by the club to support its view that the player concerned is of the highest calibre.

Premier League clubs are currently permitted to have only three non-EEA players taking part in any match. The government claims to have invited football's governing bodies to consider grounds for a quota system for a maximum number of non-EEA international players for all clubs.