How can we fight back against Infosys, TCS and other Indian consultancies?

[Old Greg]

Some form of direct democracy is the way forward, those who seek power should be automatically excluded from it. Something like jury duty but for MPs for a time limited period and severe restrictions on back handers be they trips to Disney Land or directorships after office.

Any party that proposes some kind of reform in that direction would have my vote, although it may seem tangential this get's much closer to the root cause of why we are getting f-d over and the solution.

In San Marino:

Every six months, the Council elects two Captains Regent to be the heads of state. The foundational theory was to create a balance of power or, at least, reciprocal control. They serve a 6-month term. The investiture of the Captains Regent takes place on April 1 and October 1 in every year. Once this term is over, citizens have 3 days in which to file complaints about the Captains' activities. If they warrant it, judicial proceedings against the ex-head(s) of state can be initiated.

[Lance]

Some form of direct democracy is the way forward,

and that's worked so well recently hasn't it?

[simes]

[PlanB]

and that's worked so well recently hasn't it?

If there were any issues they were solely down to politicians and a sizeable minority of the population not accepting the result. Democracy only ever works when losers accept they have lost.

[edison]

exactly, why issue visas for IT skills when we have so many IT people unemployed. There is no skill shortage in IT but the politicians who have no understanding of IT are fooled by the big corp. US has already stopped issuing h1b visas but UK is oblivious as ever.

Are you sure there's NO skill shortages in IT?

Maybe not for sectors like financial services with large volumes of commoditised roles that unfortunately can be mopped up by Indian firms. What about other sectors and skillsets like cloud, data science or machine learning to name a few?

Almost everyone I know in organisations who recruits IT staff has found it difficult to get people with a high level combination of technical and soft skills in areas like programme and project management, business analysis, business relationship management, information governance and information security for example.

The visa situation is wrong but given it's unlikely to change, the best chance we'll have is to keep upskilling, be open to work in different sectors and yes, you may have to earn less money depending on your skills.

[rocktronAMP]

I only have a problem with successive governments listening to these (mostly) Indian tech companies that Britain needs millions of cheap IT workers, and making it easy for them to place their people here. I have no problem at all with the foreign techies themselves, they are only trying to make a living like everyone else.

I appears to be that we, contractors, are taking the hit from both sides.

On the bottom-side, our contract rates are being forced downwards, because of these Indian tech companies.

On the top-side, the government is ultimately acting against us by forcing the majority us into PAYE / Inside IR35.

This is a verbatim government response to the recent House of Lords questions about the Finance Bill.

"In addition, the recent Queen’s Speech committed to bring forward an Employment Bill to promote
fairness in the workplace. The Government will continue to work across departments on these issues
and will respond to the 2018 employment status consultation in due course. Given the complexity
and importance of labour market policy, it is clear that careful deliberation is essential before
considering any future reforms. However, the unfairness of contractors paying less tax than
employees when their engagement meets the test of an employment relationship, and the resulting
loss of revenue needed for important public services, is a long-standing problem that the
Government cannot delay addressing any further."*

I wonder if there will be aptitude for shorter-form length contracts within IT (maximum of 6 months instead of 12 months) and/or the ability to work with two or clients simultaneously. If we, contractors, had working practices that were closer to, say, kitchen/bathroom installers, private gardeners, theatrical and arts freelancers, then could we get out of this IR35 mess and also kick the Indian outsiders into touch? I also wonder if we need that official work space, surely the global experience COVID-19 and remote working on mass kills that notion for good.

How can fight on both fronts when we don't know exactly who and/or what we are?

(*The Loan Charge Action Group tried to get an amendment NC31 through, but apparently BoJo and Sunak sent personal letters to most MPs in order to get them to tow the Tory party line )

[Lance]

If there were any issues they were solely down to politicians and a sizeable minority of the population not accepting the result. Democracy only ever works when losers accept they have lost.

And your response is precisely why it hasn’t worked.

Doesn’t matter who the ‘winners’ or ‘losers’ are, and the fact you refer to them as such is part of the problem.
The problem is that nobody is happy. Referendums are divisive.

[Andy2]

Are you sure there's NO skill shortages in IT?

Maybe not for sectors like financial services with large volumes of commoditised roles that unfortunately can be mopped up by Indian firms. What about other sectors and skillsets like cloud, data science or machine learning to name a few?

Almost everyone I know in organisations who recruits IT staff has found it difficult to get people with a high level combination of technical and soft skills in areas like programme and project management, business analysis, business relationship management, information governance and information security for example.
.

The govt is listing all IT skills as shortage skills , instead of specific ones like data science or machine learning, which is wrong.
You will find that CV manipulation is rife with indian outsorcers. On paper they can produce any skills.

[PlanB]

And your response is precisely why it hasn’t worked.

Doesn’t matter who the ‘winners’ or ‘losers’ are, and the fact you refer to them as such is part of the problem.
The problem is that nobody is happy. Referendums are divisive.

This has quickly descended into a tedious rehash of Brexit which I have no wish to get into whatsoever, every time a democracy asks it's population to make a decision be that electing a party or a referendum somebody wins and somebody loses. The entire process falls apart when the losing side refuses to accept that fact and the time for sparing remoaners hurty feelings is long past.

My point, that it is the party political system in this country and it's corruption by lobby groups and the consequences for all of us and our jobs in answer to the OPs question seems to have completely gone over your head.

[elsergiovolador]

I wonder if there will be aptitude for shorter-form length contracts within IT (maximum of 6 months instead of 12 months) and/or the ability to work with two or clients simultaneously. If we, contractors, had working practices that were closer to, say, kitchen/bathroom installers, private gardeners, theatrical and arts freelancers, then could we get out of this IR35 mess and also kick the Indian outsiders into touch? I also wonder if we need that official work space, surely the global experience COVID-19 and remote working on mass kills that notion for good.

Why would you want to restrict access to specialists who are self employed? Employees can also have multiple employers and could have short fixed term contracts. It's not about how many clients you have or how long projects take.