Meat processors have expressed concern that new rules will restrict access for migrants to fill critical labour shortages whilst liberalising access where no vacancies exist.
The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) said the government was in danger of imposing blanket rules to achieve arbitrary migration targets.
The industry body added that ministers should consider the different labour requirements and challenges of different industries.
Using an average salary threshold figure of £38,700 "fails to take into account that the average is made up of both higher and lower salaries."
"It’s often in the lower bracket that worker shortages are most acute," a BMPA spokesperson explained.
"If companies have to start paying migrant workers more than the ‘going rate’ for a particular job simply to achieve the threshold and fill a vacancy, this will very quickly spark wage inflation across many industries as existing UK workers demand the same salary."
In the case of the food industry, there are fears this will fuel more food price inflation.
While the BMPA agreed that allowing migrant workers to be paid 20% less than the ‘going rate’ for a job was 'unfair', raising the overall salary threshold for immigration "isn’t the way to tackle this issue".
The spokesperson said: "Nor will it fix the problem of not enough British citizens being willing, available or able to fill these vacancies.
"Also, if the government restricts the number of migrants that can come to the UK to fill the job vacancies that can’t be filled with British candidates, there will be an inevitable pressure on all sectors as they compete in a pool of workers that is simply not big enough to support a growing economy.
"In this scenario, it won’t be just private companies that struggle to recruit, but taxpayer-funded services will also suffer from worker shortages and higher costs."
BMPA backs the sector-by-sector and job-by-job approach to assessing workforce needs recently advocated by Professor Brian Bell, chair of the Migration Advisory Committee.
He describes a much more granular approach to identifying the industries and roles where the labour shortage is most acute.
