The Mayo News

Mayo’s large Polish community could soon be reduced if a call to return home is answered by the workers. Polish exit?

Michael Commins

MAYO’S large Polish population could soon be reduced – if Polish nationals answer a call from their homeland. Labour shortages in sectors of the Polish economy have become so acute that the country is now issuing special work permits to citizens from Ukraine and Belarus, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in an effort to fill the vacancies caused by the mass exodus of Polish workers to western Europe over the past three years.
So bad is the situation in parts of Poland that the government is considering using convicts, or former convicts to help with major infrastructural projects like roads and soccer stadiums. Poland is a co-host of the 2012 European Soccer Championships.
Poland, together with the Czech Republic, has also introduced a programme called Selecting Qualified Workers from Abroad which offers permanent residence permits to those who have lived and worked in the country for two and a half years.
In addition to this programme, Poland has launched a major campaign to attract home thousands of its own people who left the country after its accession to the EU in May, 2004. It is estimated that in the region of 800,000 Poles has left Poland in that short period. Many thousand came to Ireland and Britain where wages are significantly higher than in Poland.
But a fresh upsurge in economic activity across many parts of Eastern Europe is creating many new openings for workers. “Nearly every second construction firm in Poland is unable to fill vacancies,” says a new report from the Vienna Institute which also states that the construction industry in Poland and the Baltic states is unable to cope with demand because of the shortage of workers in the industry. “Labour shortages are now the limiting factor on the expansion of production,” states the Vienna report.
Construction firms in Poland, now ready to embark on some major projects, have increased wages in an effort to lure their own citizens back home where the cost of housing is still much cheaper that in western Europe.

---

Share this page