Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic Michaela Marksová-Tomínová
As previously reported, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka expressed concern at the annual conference “Czech Republic: What’s the Situation?” about the overloaded visa system at Czech consulates in Ukraine. At the same time, he promised that the government would take measures to simplify the employment procedure for Ukrainians (Zagranitsa reported on this in the article Czech Republic wants to simplify employment of Ukrainians).
The Prime Minister is concerned about the shortage of skilled labor in the country, while the international consulting agency Hays, which published the results of its study last week, claims that the Czech Republic, compared to other European countries, does not experience an acute shortage of such personnel. A correspondent for Radio Prague asked several questions on this topic to the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic, Michaela Marksová-Tomínová.
– What information does your department have?
– The Czech Republic does not have enough workers to fill certain vacant positions. The only weak consolation is that this problem faces most Western European states. In our country, there are 400 thousand unemployed and 100 thousand vacancies. Employers tell us they cannot find suitable workers in certain professions.
– How many of these more than 100 thousand vacancies are for unskilled labor, which ultimately reflects both the lower wages of these workers and the difficulty in finding people?
– At the moment, I cannot say precisely, but the figures are in a report that will reach me in the coming days. Yes, the problem of unskilled workers is acute in the sense that they often find it unprofitable to work because the rules for receiving social benefits and housing allowances do not allow people whose earnings even slightly exceed the established minimum to use them. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the minimum wage to motivate people to work.
– What measures does the Ministry of Labor plan to take in the near future, given the current data?
– As I mentioned, increase the minimum wage, because even after the second increase that takes effect in January 2016, the minimum wage level in the Czech Republic will be one of the lowest in the EU. I think it should be at least 40% of the average wage. The second problem is the shortage of technical workers. This deficit can be partially resolved by retraining those who are registered as unemployed with the Employment Center, which we are doing. This increases the chances of the unemployed finding work.
– Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka recently stated that one of the obstacles to the intensive growth of the Czech economy could be a shortage of skilled labor, and the Czech government will soon work on a project that will allow employers recruiting labor from Ukraine to simplify the employment procedure for Ukrainians after reporting their requirements. To what extent can this solve the shortage of technical personnel?
– I think we can move in this direction. All developed Western countries face the problem of labor shortages and seek such workers abroad. I believe that the ideal solution for us is to find skilled labor in countries whose culture and language are very close to ours, and Ukraine can be considered as the first acceptable option in this context. I want to emphasize that we are talking exclusively about qualified personnel, we need people of certain professions. We do not think we should completely open our labor market to anyone who would take jobs that Czechs can do. But currently, we do not have enough Czechs to fill specific positions.
– What will this look like in practice, what measures will be taken to allow employers to hire Ukrainian workers without excessive delays?
– First of all, the procedure that allows these workers to come to the Czech Republic must be simplified. This issue falls under the competence of the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As for vacancies, all job openings are registered by our employment services. There are certain rules protecting the interests of the local population. Only if a vacancy remains unfilled for a certain time and the position cannot be filled by a Czech worker can it be offered to citizens from third countries.