A recent survey carried out by the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic reveals that, if foreign workers could be issued green cards to work legally in the country, there would be plenty of demand for their services from local employers. In the next two years, Czech companies will require about 5,000 foreign workers, many with a secondary school or higher qualification. However, trade unions have concerns about the proposed green card system.
Green card system
Green cards for foreign workers from various countries – with the Ministry of the Interior (Ministerstvo vnitra České republiky, MVČR) being able to exclude certain ‘risk’ regions such as states with dictatorial regimes – should ensure enough employees for the growing Czech economy from the summer of 2009 onwards. This is part of the plan for dealing with the – as yet mild – population crisis that awaits the Czech Republic in the coming decades and preventing the decline of citizens of working age in the labour market.
The green card system, which the Czech government approved in October 2007, should be part of an amendment to Employment Act No. 435/2004 Coll. (430Kb MS Word doc) prepared by the Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (Ministerstvo práce a sociálních věcí ČR, MPSV ČR). A green card will function as both a work and residency permit for foreigners. The aim of the scheme is to considerably shorten the period for processing a work permit from the current 180 days to 30 days.
Advantages of new system
The new amendment to Act No. 435/2004 will also introduce another change in relation to permits of foreign workers – if they lose their job, these workers will be given the opportunity to find new employment within two months without facing the threat of deportation. Green cards will be valid for three years at most with the option of an extension. If a foreigner is living and working in the Czech Republic legally, he or she will have the option in certain cases to apply for a visa within the Czech Republic. Until now, applications for visas could only be carried out by foreigners at an embassy or consulate abroad. At the same time, the new system should ensure that foreign workers who lose their jobs – particularly those who are less qualified – would subsequently leave the country if they are unsuccessful in the search for employment. If these workers fail to find work within two or three months of losing their job, their work visa will be deemed invalid.
To date, people who have been interested in working in the Czech Republic have also been hampered in their search for work by the lack of available information on jobs. According to the new system, all jobs that are not filled by local applicants within three months of advertising will be added to a nationwide list of vacancies. The list, which will be published on the internet, will be restricted to specific professions and regions of the country experiencing local labour shortages. MPSV ČR will have the option of excluding vacancies from the list which offer pay that is significantly lower than the Czech minimum wage (CZ0712049I). The system should also rule out corruption in the labour market, as vacancies will be automatically placed on the internet in accordance with pre-defined rules. Moreover, the new system should prevent people who are interested in working in the Czech Republic from being forced to use temporary work agencies in their search for employment.
Reaction of social partners
Employers consider the planned system to be beneficial because the current lack of workers in a number of professions poses a serious problem for them. At present, professions experiencing a shortage of workers include in particular machine operators, technology specialists and construction workers, but also locksmiths, painters, drivers, machine setters, mechanics, toolmakers and sales representatives. The President of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic (Svaz průmyslu a dopravy ČR, SP ČR), Jaroslav Míl, highlighted: ‘We’ve been fighting for something like this for many years.’ According to Mr Míl, however, the introduction of green cards is only the first necessary step in this process, which should be followed by other measures. He warns: ‘If Czech universities do not open their doors to foreign students, they will not have anyone to teach.’ Foreign university graduates are precisely the group of people from whose ranks employers would be able to recruit employees with the necessary qualifications.
Indeed, a survey carried out by SP ČR among its members in March 2008 underlines that, if foreign workers are issued green cards to work legally in the Czech Republic, there will be considerable demand for their services. According to the employer survey, in the next two years Czech companies will require about 5,000 foreign workers, 3,500 of whom will need to have a secondary school or higher qualification.
Trade unions, on the other hand, have concerns about the proposed measures. For example, the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions (Českomoravská konfederace odborových svazů, ČMKOS) is against the relaxation of regulatory mechanisms relating to the employment of foreign workers. It justifies its position by maintaining that the green card system is not geared towards professions that have a genuine shortage of labour or to the influx of qualified workers. ČMKOS is also worried that the determining role played by MPSV ČR will be abandoned; currently, the ministry is responsible for assessing the situation in the Czech labour market as the decisive factor for the employment of foreign workers.
Furthermore, ČMKOS argues that the proposed legislation allows too much scope for abuse of the system by temporary work agencies, in addition to the fact that no guarantees have been defined to ensure that the Labour Inspectorate (Státní úřad inspekce práce, SÚIP) will carry out sufficient supervision. The confederation is also demanding that the proposed changes be discussed with the social partners within the framework of the Council of Economic and Social Agreement of the Czech Republic (Rada hospodářské a sociální dohody ČR, RHSD ČR) before the draft amendment is put before the government for discussion.
Commentary
The planned amendment to the existing employment act is currently being debated among the social partners, which has resulted in opposing opinions from the government and employers on the one hand and trade unions on the other. Consequently, it is possible that the subsequent legislative process will lead to changes in the draft legislation that has been proposed to date. MPSV ČR expects the green card system to be launched in the summer of 2009.
Jaroslav Hála and Soňa Veverková, Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs (RILSA)