Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany are fighting for cheap Ukrainians
Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia may deprive Poland of a significant part of workers from Ukraine, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Liu says this in the publication of the influential Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita.
“The last chance to fight for workers from Ukraine, whom Germany is already beginning to recruit. They are also recruited to the Czech Republic and Slovakia, luring them with higher salaries and two-year contracts,” the newspaper reports.
The director of the Ukrainian bureau of the employment agency Work Service, Marianne Przezdzetsky, states the fact that now more and more Ukrainians are leaving to work in the Czech Republic. “Already now the Czechs are taking away from us (from Poland - Ed.) more and more workers from Ukraine, and soon the time will come for Germany, where most of the specialists can go,” he said.
At the same time, the Work Service representative admits that despite the great demand from employers, it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract Ukrainians to work in Poland.
In his opinion, this is due to the fact that in Ukraine, especially in the western regions, there is also a growing shortage of personnel, and secondly, this year competition from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which have liberalized entry procedures, has increased significantly.
Director of the employment agency EWL, Michal Wierzchowski, in turn, notes the need to change legislative procedures to attract Ukrainian workers to the Polish market. “Despite the announcements of simplification of procedures for Ukrainians, nothing changes. We are standing still while other countries are starting to open up to them,” he said.
At the same time, Wierzhovsky noted that in the Czech Republic, where wages are about a third higher than in Poland (and in the automotive industry up to 50%), Ukrainians can now easily obtain a visa to work for 90 days. And after the expiration of this period, the employer can employ them within the framework of the state program Režim Ukrajina for 24 months.
Another competitor of Poland in the fight for Ukrainian workers is Slovakia, where wages are on average 20% higher than in Poland. Already now, Ukrainians can quite easily obtain the right to reside there for two years.
Germany will soon become a serious competitor to the Polish labor market, which will open its market more widely to labor migrants from outside the European Union, including from Ukraine, from January 2019. According to Przezdziecki, German intermediaries are already recruiting potential job candidates, luring them with earnings of about 1,4 thousand net euros per month for 170 hours of work, which is twice as much as in Poland for 240 hours of work.
According to him, German recruiters are looking not only for specialists, but also for workers without qualifications or knowledge of the German language.
He argues that Poland has ceased to be a leader in openness to workers from Ukraine. “We fell to last place in the region. In addition, we are inferior to competition in terms of wages, and the living conditions of our employees are also often worse,” the specialist said.
Earlier, the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers of Poland estimated the possible outflow of Ukrainian workers at 500 thousand people, which could reduce the country's GDP by 1,6%.
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