Construction companies in the Czech Republic cannot do without Ukrainian workers, all year round. The process of recruiting Ukrainians takes about half a year, which is too long in relation to the length of construction projects. Builders would therefore welcome easier issuance of long-term visas. Ukraine is currently facing aggression from Russia, which has recognized the independence of the two separatist republics in eastern Ukraine and sent troops there.
“Ukrainian workers are in demand in construction because they get along well with the local environment and culture,” said Strabag spokeswoman Edita Novotna. “At the same time, they occupy not only manual and craft professions, but also positions of technical and economic workers, where professional secondary or university education is required,” she added.
Most workers from Ukraine work in the Czech Republic on long-term visas in the employee card regime. “Given the really desperate shortage of Czech workers in the local labor market, we would welcome the process of processing these cards as short as possible,” said the spokeswoman.
Vojtěch Kostiha, a spokesman for the Metrostav Group, confirmed that Ukrainian workers are needed not only in construction but also in administration. According to him, the current legislation for their employment is in such a bad condition that the whole recruitment process takes up to half a year, which is too long in relation to the duration of construction projects. “In the Metrostav group, we therefore employ only so-called non-foreigners, which are all EU citizens. We have Czechs, Slovaks, Germans, Hungarians, Poles and, for example, Finns,” said Kostiha.
General contractors usually use the services of subcontractors. When they have the capacity to deal with the complex recruitment of Ukrainian employees for specific activities, or they hire these workers through employment agencies. Vladimír Bešta, Production and Sales Director of Skanska Civil Engineering, stated that in some professions of their subcontractors, Ukrainians make up 80 percent of all employees.
According to company representatives, the need for Ukrainian workers in the Czech construction industry is year-round. “For transport constructions, which are more dependent on climatic conditions, the greatest need is from March to December; for building construction, seasonality practically does not matter,” Novotná added.
Kostiha also sees climate change as a year-round need for labor. “The real winter in the Czech Republic has not been for many years, despite the fact that our citizens are constantly sending Christmas postcards with pictures from the Lady with the snowy village, probably in the belief that it will change reality,” he said.
However, according to Kostiha, the weather is not a factor that would have a negative effect on the construction schedule. If something is delaying the projects, according to Kostya, it is a lack of building materials, inflation that is hurting construction budgets and a lack of quality staff, which would have a solution in the simplification of work visas for Ukrainian workers.
The number of Ukrainians living or working in the Czech Republic has recently increased. In January 2022, the Czech labor offices registered a total of 198,470, which is a quarter more year-on-year. According to the office, their number increased by 38 percent compared to pre-Christmas January 2020.
Source: CTK
