THE NUMBER of foreign workers in Slovak companies has started to rise again. The daily Hospodárske Noviny wrote in late September that most of them were from the Czech Republic and Romania. However, while most foreign workers were employed in manual roles in the past, now they mostly work in management positions.
The trend towards employing foreigners is making a return after declining for three years. Statistics from the Labour, Social Affairs and Family Office shows that the number of foreigners working in Slovakia increased by 15 percent to almost 18,000 when compared with August 2009. The highest number of arrivals was from Romania. The increase was caused in particular by inter-connection of multinational companies' Slovak and foreign branches.
“As Slovaks go outside into foreign plants to collect experience in the international environment, so in the same way foreign employees arrive in Slovakia,” Vladimír Machalík, the spokesperson of the Slovak arm of German carmaker Volkswagen, told the daily.
HR experts at companies do not expect a return of foreign manual workers as there are now enough Slovaks applying for such jobs. Companies with foreigners in manual positions include, for example, electronics firm Samsung and mining company HB Prievidza.
18. Oct 2010 at 0:00 | Compiled by Spectator staff
