AN employment agency is using foreign languages to find new recruits for the first time.

The agency, Resource Industrial Recruitment, based in Halifax, is asking for order picking staff for a unnamed household name retail company based in the Dorcan area.

In the advert placed in the Evening Advertiser, the company asked for staff for the new jobs in Polish and Lithuanian, as well as English.

The firm says it shows the jobs are not just for those speaking English.

A spokesman for Resource said: "We are remotely recruiting people for these new jobs, but this is the first time we have used foreign languages in an advert.

"We wanted to show that the job was not just exclusive to those people who can speak English.

"We have been told that Swindon has a large Polish community and close links with a town in Poland and that there is a degree of the community that are unemployed."

"Some firms are finding recruiting locally is limited and normal sources are drying up.

"So using foreign languages in adverts taps into new workers who have come over as a result of the European Union expansion."

The firm also said it had expected that Swindon's close links with Polish partnership town Torun would increase the Polish community.

So far there has been a great deal of interest from both English speaking and Polish-speaking applicants.

Poland was one of 10 countries, which entered the European Union on May 1, 2004, along with Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia.

For people in the new member states it gave them the freedom to work in any of the member states, including the UK.

It also meant legislation in those countries would be harmonised with Europe to give citizens of the new member states EU rights.

Critics fear the changes will lead to many former Eastern bloc residents being able to move to Western Europe.

The charge is denied by those in favour.

Anthony Osborne