THE ART OF BECOMING A VICTIM
Imagination painted such a pleasant picture that it never occurred to anyone to ask the representative of the Kyiv firm about what business relations, actually, connected her management with the capitalist bosses from Reykjavik. Three hundred builders chipped in several hundred dollars each 'for the current expenses of the Art Gallery' and began to wait for an invitation to work. They were told they needed to be patient for about two months – because of the absence of an Icelandic consular office in Ukraine, the trip was arranged in Moscow, which naturally took time. Another two hundred fellow builders were collecting warm clothes in Kyiv.
When in March the first group of Ivano-Frankivsk residents arrived in Kyiv and showed up at the firm's office, they found no one there except a frightened secretary. The director of the 'Gallery' had departed in an unknown direction with an exhibition of the banknotes collected as advance payment. Due to the scandal, the firm was stripped of its license, but it is unlikely that the people who spent their last pennies in the hope of getting a job experienced any purifying catharsis from this.
Such, or similar, but completely real stories have been filling the pages of newspapers lately. We, citizens, are still being deceived. Deceived, taking advantage of the hopelessness of our situation and our stupidity mixed with delicacy. We are embarrassed to ask for documents from those who supposedly intend to benefit us, while mentally trying on our last shirt. Not a single living soul in this country can give recommendations that would completely protect you from the 'help' of fraudsters when trying to find a job abroad, although a brochure or a guide to action could already be printed on this topic. Nevertheless, the simplest and quite effective advice is worth remembering. But let's agree right away that we are now talking only about the possibility of going to work abroad on legal grounds.
MISTAKE ONE: LICENSE
The fact that the firm you are contacting has an official license for intermediary activities in employment abroad does not mean that they will not try to deceive you (the 'gallerists', for example, had a license). But if there is no license at all – then you will definitely be deceived.
So, first of all, you should look at the license – and not just look, but read it. The old-style license, like a school certificate, is printed on both sides, on colored paper. Usually, in the offices of employment firms, the license, again like a certificate, is hung on the wall in a frame – so that the beautiful inscription and number are visible. The number can be written down, and then call the Licensing Chamber and ask if this license has been accidentally revoked. However, no less interesting information is written on the back of the license: there are special conditions that regulate the activities of this firm, that is, the rules that you have the right to expect to be followed. Only the original license has legal force. And if you see not the original, but a black-and-white copy, even if certified by a notary – then you are not seeing the license at all. If a firm gives a copy of the license to a so-called 'agent', it automatically loses the right to operate.
Since the summer of this year, licenses will be printed on new-style forms, where all information – both the license number and the special conditions of the firm's operation – is placed on one side. Such a document can be read from beginning to end immediately, without annoying the firm's employees with suspicious requests to 'turn the picture over'.
MISTAKE TWO: CONTRACT
The phrase 'we employ in all countries of the world', which you read in the firm's brochure, is at best just a publicity stunt, at worst a sure sign of dishonest dealing with the client.
The fact is that an intermediary has the right to offer you work only in the country with whose firm it has signed a foreign economic contract. Drawing up such a contract requires significant expenditure of effort and money, and it is highly doubtful that many domestic firms are capable of working with several international destinations at once. The contract must comply with the domestic law on foreign economic activity; it must be legalized – translated into Ukrainian and confirmed at the consular office of the country whose firm is the employer.
Simply put, if you are promised employment in Italy, then, in addition to the license, you must be shown a contract between the Ukrainian ('your') intermediary firm and the receiving Italian firm. Moreover, the document must bear the stamp of the Italian consulate. If there is no such stamp, then they are trying to employ you on a 'balloon'.
And more about documents. Each country has its own regulations governing the labor of foreign workers. Therefore, any foreign inviting firm must, in accordance with the legislation of its country, obtain permission to employ foreign citizens. If the Ukrainian intermediary does not have a copy of such permission, then there can be no question of legal employment.
MISTAKE THREE: ADVANCE PAYMENT
At the moment you give the firm an advance for services, you automatically turn from a client into a victim. The larger the amount requested as an advance, the more cynically they are trying to 'cheat' you.
According to the current instructions, all types of advance payment before the actual conclusion of an employment contract with the employer (not with the intermediary, but with the firm that is the direct hirer) are prohibited. That is, you should not pay the firm anything (not a penny!) until you have signed a work contract with the direct employer.
Many firms, trying to bypass the ban on advance payment, take money under the pretext of providing information and consulting services. They do not employ, but only supply addresses of employers, enter the names of applicants into some card files and databases, tell them what to say and how to behave at the embassy where you go for a visa. So: these caveats are invalid. According to the current instructions, the firm is obliged to advise you for free, and payment occurs only after the person has been employed.
EMPLOYMENT AS A WAY OF EMPLOYMENT
There is something mystical about the popularity of firms 'for employment abroad' as a type of free enterprise in Ukraine. While in Russia (where the employment problem is no less acute than in Ukraine) about 250 firms employ abroad, in Ukraine 750 various offices are engaged in this.
A firm engaged in employment can be opened quickly and cheaply in our country. Until 1996, when the State Employment Center itself determined the procedure for issuing licenses for employment abroad, 'firm owners' could be required to have foreign economic contracts (without which, as we have already found out, employment activities within the law are impossible) even before the license was issued. In 1998, the Cabinet of Ministers, in the name of developing entrepreneurship, established a unified licensing procedure for all types of activities. Under the current rules, it is practically impossible to give a firm a reasoned refusal to issue a license. For obtaining a license, an individual pays 54, and a legal entity – 204 hryvnias.
A license revoked for one reason or another can be restored almost immediately. Even such influential departments as the SBU or the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which sometimes handle cases of 'problematic' firms, are not always able to stop their activities. Often, a potential victim of fraud can only be saved by intuition and common sense. For example, common sense should tell you that it is impossible to legally get a job through an intermediary firm (rather than through a self-found employer, family ties, etc.) in countries such as Canada, the USA, France, or Germany. At best, you will be sent to one of these countries on a tourist visa. If you succeed, you will stay there 'under the table', in the unenviable position of an illegal migrant, with the prospect of deportation from the country and being placed on 'blacklists' of consular services.
'THE SHAVEN TSAR'
Signing a work contract does not mean, as they say, 'grabbing the tsar by the beard'. The tsar, figuratively speaking, may turn out to be 'shaven'.
Upon arrival at the place of work, you may well be met with conditions and wages that are much different (naturally, for the worse) from those stipulated in the contract. The rights of Ukrainians going to work abroad are most often not protected by any interstate agreements. For example, Ukraine has signed an agreement on social protection of workers, among all European countries, only with Spain.
Our state has concluded agreements on mutual employment only with the CIS countries, Latvia, Vietnam, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland. These documents provide that Ukrainian citizens accepted by these states are fully covered by the labor legislation (including equal opportunities for remuneration) of these countries. Of course, the legislation applies only to those who work in the country legally, within the allocated quota. (Note that this does not prevent Ukrainian workers in the Czech Republic from working 14-16 hours a day).
Last year, quotas for Ukrainian workers from the three named European countries were allocated only by the Czech Republic and Slovakia; for the current year, the quota has not yet arrived. In the five months of this year, the State Employment Center received only two applications from the Czech Republic for 40 seamstresses. In fact, the current delay in determining quotas means that it is impossible to employ anyone abroad at the state level.
I would like to emphasize that all of the above does not exclude the possibility of going abroad by hook or by crook and successfully earning some money there. It is only important, before making a decision, to correctly assess the degree of risk. And this degree is very high.
'Zagranitsa' No. 4, 1999.