The Mlsa Negotiated With Employers’ Representatives on the Employment of Foreigners
Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Čestmír Sajda met with representatives of employers. The main point of the meeting was the effort to inform employers about the Internet application, which allows Czech companies to look for new qualified workers in third countries. The Internet application operates within the pilot project “Active selection of qualified foreign workers”, which was launched by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs in the Czech Republic on July 28, 2003.
The aim of the project is to bring foreign experts and their families to the Czech Republic. Citizens of the target countries (Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kazakhstan and Moldova) can obtain permanent residence in the Czech Republic in a shortened period of two and a half years after fulfilling the necessary conditions.
In the first year of project implementation, the biggest obstacle to its effective operation was the difficulty of obtaining employment in the Czech Republic. Therefore, at the beginning of October 2004, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MLSA) launched an Internet application that should help potential applicants to join the project.Those interested can find it at www.praceprocizince.cz and it works in Czech, English and also in various language versions for individual target countries. The site works on the basis of so-called pairing – the system connects the offer of those interested in joining the project and the demand of employers. The professional classification is divided according to the KZAM system, which will enable them to look for suitable candidates for vacancies for which it is not possible to place suitable workers from the Czech Republic and other European Union countries, as well as labor offices. All services are provided free of charge.
In order for a Czech employer to conclude an employment contract with a third-country national, a foreigner must meet two basic conditions – obtain a work permit and a visa for a stay of more than 90 days for the purpose of employment or a long-term residence permit issued for the same purpose.The application services can also be used by project participants who lose their jobs through no fault of their own and will look for a new place within the 30-day protection period. Registration of job seekers and employers takes place in four steps. The main requirement when creating an Internet application was its simplicity. Only persons who meet the conditions for participation in the project – belonging to one of the target countries and completed at least secondary vocational education or university graduation in the Czech Republic should apply to the system. However, the administration of candidates carried out by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs shows that other groups of foreigners are also interested in the application.
To date, over 1,500 jobseekers in the Czech Republic have visited the internet application, while only two dozen offers have appeared from employers, despite the fact that companies are interested in the internet application during the debates.
The reason for this situation is mainly the short period of operation of the application, which experts otherwise consider a suitable tool for obtaining a quality workforce from abroad on the Czech labor market. Nevertheless, it will be possible to evaluate the real benefits of the application only after a longer period of time, when as many of those who will be able to actively use it become acquainted with it. That is why the MLSA, in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), has in recent months shifted the main focus of the information campaign to business circles and to informing about the possibilities and benefits of the site.www.praceprocizince.cz .
Of the more than 1,500 people who entered the section for registered jobseekers for the said application, 1,079 placed their advertisement. 486 of them come from Belarus, 358 from Bulgaria, 104 from Croatia, 21 from Moldova, 21 are registered in the category of Czech university graduates and 19 come from Kazakhstan. Other candidates were excluded due to incomplete applications.
Among the registered, men predominate (694) over women (304), the remaining 81 applicants did not state their gender. The greatest interest is in the following categories of employment, broken down by the ISCO classification: technicians in physical, technical and related fields (367), managers, directors who run a small enterprise, organization and society (293), other scientists and intellectuals not listed elsewhere (247 ), officials in services and trade (217), scientists and specialists in physical and related sciences, architects and technical engineers (213), technicians in the field of biology, health and agricultural workers and workers in related fields (177) and managers and managers employees of large organizations, companies, enterprises, etc. (1637), service workers (131) and professional pedagogical workers (1125). At the same time, some applicants cite more professions as an option. It is obvious that this is a huge potential that Czech employers with vacancies that cannot be filled by employees from the Czech Republic and the European Union could use for a long time.
The following domains were registered for the operation of the Internet application for various language versions: www.praceprocizince.cz plus www.praceprocizince.org in the Czech Republic, as well as www.imigracijacz.org plus other suffixes (* .com, net, info) in Bulgaria and Croatia, www.immigrationjacz.org plus additional suffixes (* .com, net, info) in Belarus, Moldova and Kazakhstan and www.immigrationcz.org.org plus additional suffixes (* .com, net, info) for those who communicate in English.
Further information on the pilot project is available at www.imigrace.mpsv.cz and www.imigracecz.org