- Title: POLAND / GERMANY: Poland assesses affects of German job market opening
- Date: 20th April 2011
- Summary: GOERLITZ, GERMANY AND ZGORZELEC, POLAND (RECENT) (REUTERS) PAN FROM GERMAN TO POLISH SIDE OF CROSS BORDER TOWN GOERLITZ, GERMANY (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF GERMAN BORDER SIGNS WORKERS COBBLING PAVEMENT WARSAW, POLAND (APRIL 15, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF POLISH ECONOMY MINISTRY LABOUR MINISTER, JOLANTA FEDAK IN LOBBY (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) LABOUR MINISTER, JOLA
- Embargoed: 5th May 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Poland, Germany
- City:
- Country: Poland Germany
- Topics: International Relations,Economic News
- Reuters ID: LVAAZV6USEFMEFLVNZIREXWBJSD1
- Story Text: Germany and Austria won a seven-year exemption shielding their jobs markets from ex-communist states such as Poland that joined the European Union in 2004 but that will expire on 1st of May, raising the prospect of hundreds of thousands of Polish workers moving west.
The opening up of the market coincides with robust economic growth in Germany. This comes even as some euro zone peers sink deeper into government debt crises.
At the sleepy border town of Zgorzelec, as it is known in Polish and Goerlitz as it is called by it's German residents a local agreement that is already in place sees the towns residents sharing work on both sides of the borders already in a sign of what is to come.
In Warsaw work is being done in Government ministries to prepare for the opening of the border.
Jolanta Fedak, Polish Labour Minister explained that the numbers of Poles taking advantage of the opportunity would not represent a sudden exodus.
"We expect, according to our estimates, that within a period of three years approximately three to four hundred thousand people will have taken jobs in Germany," Fedak told Reuters. "Nevertheless there will not be a sudden and large outflow of workers or unemployed people from our labour market. This is because of two factors; Firstly, people who have already worked seasonally or without registration in Germany will now become registered. And secondly the knowledge of the German language is not as common as English."
In a country of 38 million, the Polish government's figures of up to 400,000 people to seeking work in Germany and Austria is not an insignificant figure though much less than the estimated 1.5 million who left, mostly to Britain and Ireland, after Poland joined the EU in 2004.
Piotr Buko, an electrical engineer, has already worked in the UK and is planning to move to Germany after opening up of its market.
"I am an electrician, an engineer, and I will look for a job in Germany after 1st of May. I hope I will get a job, because it is difficult to find it here in Poland. I have worked as a electronics-engineer in England before and I hope it will be easier now to find a job in Germany," said Buko.
Nino Barbato, an Italian developer from Goerlitz, says that opening of labour market in Germany may have positive effect on both countries.
"I am Italian, I'm building my second hotel here in Goerlitz. I will be happy when Polish workers come to Germany after May 1st and I think it can only be positive for us and for our neighbours in Poland. In my opinion it is a positive process, it will be positive for both sides," said Barbato.
Nearly 40 percent of Polish employers, especially bigger companies, are worried about the impact of Germany's opening, according to a survey by online job centre pracuj.pl. Two thirds of those polled expect problems finding blue collar workers.
Nevertheless, Kinga Jablonska-Hieronimczuk, a public relations director for Siemens in Poland, is not afraid of a probability of loosing workforce, pointing to the fact that Polish companies can compete with their German rivals, "We think that our employee package is attractive enough, also for the people who live near the German border and we do not expect that they will prefer going to work in Germany in a massive volume,"
Statistics office data from 2010 show remittances from Poles living abroad were nearly 17 billion euros, a drop in the ocean now for Poland's 353 billion euro economy but providing a useful boost for poorer rural areas where many migrants still have families to support. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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