(source: TASR)
Employing foreign workers will become easier in Slovakia. On February 8th Parliament passed a revision to the law on employment services to be effective as of May 1, 2018. It will ease the import of workers from third countries for selected professions for which companies are unable to find workers and in districts with an unemployment rate below 5 percent but the number cannot comprise more than 30 percent of the total workers for any given company.
“For identified jobs, a simplified procedure would apply for third-country nationals for granting unified permits. For example, it will not be necessary to report vacancies for this purpose,” MPs for Smer Ján Podmanický, Martin Glváč and Ľubomír Petrák wrote in the draft revision.
The list of jobs, for which employers are failing to find workers will be set by a commission on the tripartite level. It will be published on the web-site of the Labour Ministry and updated annually.
Easing the import of workers from third countries should help employers to bridge the current lack of qualified labour.
Number of foreign workers in Slovakia increases
At the end of December 2017, the Labour Ministry registered 49,478 foreign workers in Slovakia. Out of them 27,726 were workers from EU member countries who do not need any special permission to work here and 21,752 people were from third countries, i.e. non-EU member countries. Most foreign workers from non-EU countries are from Serbia, the Ukraine and Vietnam. Foreign workers are employed most often in the districts of Bratislava, Trnava and Nitra.
Compared with the end of 2016, the total number of foreigners working in Slovakia increased by 14,388. At the end of December 2016, there were 35,090 foreigners working in Slovakia. Out of them 24,054 were from EU member countries and 11,036 from non-EU member countries.
