Hiring Foreign Workers Today and Tomorrow

Hiring Foreign Workers Today and Tomorrow

“Regulations that comply with the market realities and support for overburdened administration − without this the business environment will not be stable,” says Marcin Borowski of LSJ HR Group.

 

This year the Szczecin region will get several thousand new jobs. New investors, who will look for staff, present their offer which, for many active professionals may be a brand new quality. Attractive hourly rates, free transport to work, training, cheap meals... this is the offer that local employers will have to face in 2017. And it is not the only challenge, but part of broader changes in the labour market.

 

Employers also have to cope with the significant fall in the unemployment rate, keep adjusting salaries to market expectations and look for other HR solutions to improve the operations of entire companies or individual units. It doesn't surprise anyone that one of the solutions may be hiring foreign workers, in particular from Ukraine.

 

A lot has been said and written about the need to look for employees from across the Eastern border. Their situation may be compared to Poles going to work in the United Kingdom: they took up the same jobs British people did not want to do, they earned a reputation for their hard work and commitment and soon we were seeing Poles making lucrative careers in the UK. However, Poles had unrestricted access to the labour market. Workers from Ukraine, as well as employers who want to hire them, had to face many obstacles. These obstacles are so serious that they basically prevent employers from planning recruitment and make it very difficult for foreign workers to take up legal and safe employment.

 

Q4 2016 for many companies was a time of uncertainty in terms of the inflow of workers from the East. A lot was said about changes in the law with the view to regulate the employment of foreigners. All regulations, both existing and planned, have their advantages and disadvantages. Amendments of the law have been postponed to 2018. The present procedures for hiring a foreign worker, e.g. from Ukraine, is simple, provided that the duration of employment in Poland will not exceed six months: a declaration had to be submitted in a District Labour Office. Problems appear when the parties want to extend the stay and employment. The document necessary to do so is a residence card which, in line with law, should be issued within two months (it permits the stay and work) or an A-type permit (the law provides that the permit, given within one month, allows the person to undertake employment, provided that the foreigner has a valid stay permit, e.g. a visa).

 

Unfortunately, since the inflow of foreign workers is so big, government agencies have become overloaded with work and the statutory periods for issuing the documents basically ceased to exist. In many regions applicants have to wait many months, the dates are often unpredictable even for the civil servants who under a lot of pressure and on an unprecedented scale examine piles of applications. The situation is also extremely difficult for employers and employees. The former, having trained an employee, are unable to determine whether the person will be able to come back to work in three, six or even 10 months. From the market perspective this situation is unacceptable. The situation of foreign workers is also stressful. They cannot take up lawful employment but keep paying for their costs of living in Poland. While waiting for a residence card, but being without a valid visa, they may leave Poland, but will be allowed to come back only after they get a new visa (the waiting time in Ukraine is also several months). Very often they have no choice but to work illegally for many months, instead of paying taxes and taking up lawful employment at Polish companies.

 

Ukraine is in advanced talks with the European Union to waive visas. Certain countries offer grants to Ukrainian students to encourage them to visits. Soon Poland may lose its appeal − though salaries rise rapidly in terms of standards of living we are still behind Western Europe. Considering the rules for hiring foreign workers and administrative bottlenecks, soon Polish companies may face considerable staff deficits. Regulations should serve the needs of the market. It is very important to support overloaded government agencies as without it the legal and administrative environment will not be as predictable as business requires. If we want to think about the labour market in the mid- and long-term perspective, this is the area to act today.

 

Marcin Borowski

Business Development Manager

LSJ HR Group