Workers from abroad will need to be provided with the same salaries as Poles. In 2017, amendments to the employment law will come into force, which the Polish government is currently working on. The changes will be introduced in accordance with an EU directive, writes the Polish publication Rzeczpospolita. The publication also notes that additional types of work permits will be introduced: a seasonal work permit for a period of 8 months and a short-term work permit for a period of 6 months.
As Radio Prague notes, Polish employers hire about 550,000 workers from abroad annually, mainly from Ukraine. Most often this concerns the construction and household sectors. The arriving foreign workers fill a gap formed due to the mass exodus of Poles to earn money in Western Europe. According to the publication, after the changes are introduced, the number of foreign workers in Poland may decrease.
Foreigners working in Poland in 2015 earned more than 2 billion euros. As the publication Dziennik Gazeta Prawna writes, this is an absolute record. 'Foreigners' earnings increase every year, but in 2015 their growth was especially dynamic,' the publication writes. The article titled 'Billions for Ukrainians' presents data from the National Bank of Poland, according to which earnings of workers from abroad doubled compared to 2014. 'This money went primarily to Ukraine, at least to citizens of that country working in Poland,' the newspaper writes. The article says that this growth is due to an increase in the number of workers from Ukraine, as demonstrated by the statistics on the issuance of work permits, which doubled.