Many companies in the Moravian-Silesian region have a problem finding new employees. Especially for some professions, the labor market in the Czech Republic and neighboring countries is exhausted. Companies would therefore welcome the simplification of the process of employing foreigners from outside the European Union. Representatives of the companies told said.
The Liberty Ostrava (LO) smelter is currently looking for around 250 people for production in unskilled, qualified and highly qualified positions. “We are also dealing with a tense labor market by employing foreigners. At Liberty Ostrava, we currently have about 5,700 regular employees, of which 130 are foreigners,” said LO spokeswoman Barbora Černá Dvořáková.
Almost 50 Slovaks and about the same number of Poles work in the smelter. From countries outside the EU, these are mainly Ukrainians, of whom there are 20 among the regular employees. But they also have one Nepalese there.
LO Director of Personnel Affairs František Šourek stated that the market for the employment of EU citizens works flexibly and is not burdened with excessive administration. “In the EU countries, however, the labor market is exhausted for some professions, as in the Czech Republic, and we will not be able to find candidates for many professions in Europe. from the idea to the actual arrival of the employee, several months will pass,” said Šourek.
Černá said LO used government economic migration programs primarily because they helped, among other things, help meet deadlines for applying for a work permit. “The steelworks would appreciate the administrative simplification for hiring workers from outside the EU, which could help address the shortage of production staff,” the spokeswoman said.
Petr Klimek, CEO of Fulnek-based engineering company Nordic Steel, would also welcome a simplification of the recruitment process from outside the EU. “In Poland, they are able to process work permits much faster than in our country. We are still looking for people. We have 180 employees and we would certainly make about 20 more. It would mainly be employees from Ukraine,” said Klimek.
In addition to domestic employees, the company also employs Slovaks. “We already have four Ukrainians employed for whom we managed to get a work permit. But we would like the process to be shortened,” Klimek said. The company would need welders, locksmiths or forklift drivers.
“We are facing a high absence and a shortage of employees willing to work in shift mode. In order to be able to cover the planned production, today we would welcome more than 80 new employees in our operations,” said BR Group CEO Petr Mitura.
The group employs about 2,800 people in ten production companies, mainly in the Moravian-Silesian and Olomouc regions, but also in the Liberec region. He is looking for employees for unskilled and qualified positions.
“We use labor from EU countries, especially Poland. Some of our companies even provide their own pickups from nearby Polish cities. However, there are professions that are still unavailable, such as electrician or welder. Therefore, we would welcome the simplification of the recruitment process outside the EU.” said Mitura.
Recruiting a qualified employee through the government’s program is, according to him, a very demanding administration. “The whole process from the selection of the candidate to the start of employment takes half a year, which does not allow us to respond flexibly to the needs of production,” said Mitura.
BR Group spokeswoman Ivana Gračková said that two engineering companies are now waiting for formalities to be completed for the first workers from India and the Philippines, who they chose on the basis of their CVs and telephone interviews. “But the process can take several months,” she added.
Lawyer Jaroslav Vystrk from the Ostrava law firm Forlex stated that the Qualified Employee Program was last modified last August. “However, his help is very limited so far. He encounters low quotas that have been set and a lengthy administrative process, for example, foreigners can only employ companies that have been in business with us for at least two years and are not connected with employment agencies,” said Vystrk.
In addition, according to him, the program is aimed only at citizens of Belarus, Montenegro, the Philippines, India, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Serbia or Ukraine. “The Czech market is no longer interesting enough for Ukrainians and is heading west. Other countries have a very low annual limit of workers who can qualify for the program. For example, there are 600 in India and 500 in Kazakhstan, which are extremely and unreasonably low,” said the lawyer.
The share of the unemployed in the Moravian-Silesian Region was 5.3 percent in January. There were not over 43,000 people working there, and the employment office registered more than 13,400 vacancies in the region. The head of the employment department of the Ostrava branch of the office, Vladana Purdeková, said that in more than 48 percent of the reported positions, employers stated that they would also like to hire workers from abroad.
Source: CTK
