"This pilot project is a response to demand from Czech employers who need highly qualified specialists. There is a shortage of such people on the Czech labor market," explained Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka regarding the government decree.
According to Radio Prague, the pilot project will start operating as early as December. Who from Ukraine will be able to come to work in the Czech Republic? First of all, IT and technical specialists. Czech employers will be able to invite people for positions that have been vacant for more than 30 days. That is, if during this time no Czech citizen applies for the job (and the employer is obliged to inform the employment office about the vacancy), then a Ukrainian can take this position. They will receive a work visa in an "expedited" manner.
The trade unions did not approve of the government's decision. Here is what the chairman of the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions, Josef Středula, said in an interview with Czech Radio: "The main reason we are against it is that mechanisms for hiring foreigners, including Ukrainians, already exist. However, the Visapoint system is not working, and there are suspicions that officials are involved in corruption. Instead of fixing the current system, we are creating a new one. There is also a second reason. Yes, we understand that there is a shortage of qualified specialists on the labor market. But it is also important to us that those who come to work in the Czech Republic receive the same salaries as Czechs."
The trade unions fear that employers will engage in dumping, paying Ukrainians less than Czech citizens, and thus many Czechs will refuse the work that Ukrainians will gladly accept.
The Vice-President of the Economic Chamber of the Czech Republic, Irena Bartoňová-Pálková, considers the trade unions' fears unfounded: "There is absolutely no question of dumping. The huge problem is that our entrepreneurs already cannot find workers, despite the fact that there are 450,000 unemployed in the country. Many of these unemployed simply do not want to work."
Why do the unemployed not want to work? Because they receive enough social benefits. And those who do not want to work will in no way compete with those who are looking for a job.
Moreover, the Economic Chamber proposes that not only high-level specialists be attracted to the Czech Republic. "We advocate that people without qualifications and with low qualifications should also work here. We need a considerable number of them, but they are not on the labor market. As for highly qualified specialists, I doubt that we will need as many as the government stated, that is, five hundred. I assume that in the end there will be several dozen. We want the government to consider allowing any labor force into the Czech market. So that Czech companies can operate normally and the country's GDP does not fall," says Irena Bartoňová-Pálková in an interview with Czech Radio.
Employers, according to representatives of the Economic Chamber, are interested not only in workers from Ukraine but also from other countries. However, there is a particularly warm attitude towards Ukrainians in the Czech Republic. "Ukrainians are mentally close to us," says Irena Bartoňová-Pálková. "And besides, they easily, literally within three months, start speaking Czech. Ukrainians are very nice people."