The Association of Labour Providers (ALP) has asked the European Commission to commence infraction proceedings against the British government following its decision to extend the accession states' Workers Registration Scheme (WRS) for a further two years.

Mark Boleat, the chairman of the ALP, said: “The decision of the British government was illogical, contradictory, unjustifiable and possibly contrary to European law. Our submission to the European Commission argues that for political reasons the government has decided to extend the WRS for a further two years, imposing a considerable burden on low-paid workers and a lesser burden on their employers.”

Boleat also highlighted that the government asked the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) for a report only after it had decided to extend the scheme. He said: “The MAC itself admits that it took no account of the interests of workers or of employers. It asserts with no evidence that the £90 fee for registering acts as a deterrent to workers coming to Great Britain. It does not. It is merely a deterrent to registering and an encouragement to working in the informal economy.”

The ALP also claims the government’s actions are contradictory. Boleat said: “The MAC report noted that the government could maintain the WRS only if it could ‘demonstrate that abolition would threaten to generate or somehow exacerbate a serious disturbance to the domestic labour market’. It then recommended retention of the scheme while admitting: ‘We would therefore expect any impact of abolishing or retaining it on the number of A8 immigrants employed to be small.’ This is a clear contradiction.”

Boleat claims that as well as there being no suggestion that workers from the A8 countries are seriously disrupting the labour market, the decision to extend it was taken without taking due regard to the interests of or proper consultation with the social partners and other stakeholders.

He said: “The decision is of questionable legality.”