Poland Grants Free Worker Access To 11 EU And EFTA Countries

Poland is granting seven EU member states and the four European Free Trade Area (EFTA) countries free access to its labour market, the Polish Minister of Labour, Anna Kalata, said Wednesday.

Announcing the lifting of the labour market restrictions in Warsaw, Kalata said that free access to the labour market was one of the "fundamental rights of the EU."

Under the new regulations, citizens of Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, Denmark, France, Luxembourg and Belgium are entitled to work in Poland without a work permit.

Citizens of the four EFTA countries, Sweden, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway will also be allowed free access to the Polish labour market.

Kalata did not expect the Polish unemployment rate, which is currently 15 per cent, to be adversely affected.

Earning opportunities in Poland meant that the citizens of the EU and EFTA countries would not be particularly interested in the Polish labour market, she said, in a reference to the large disparity in incomes between Poland and its western and northern neighbours.

In 2005, 1,600 citizens of EU member states sought employment in Poland and in the first six months of 2006 there were 433 jobseekers from Poland's western neighbours.

Ireland, Britain and Sweden, which opened their labour markets to Poland when the country joined the EU in May, 2004, have had full access to the Polish jobs market since then.

Meanwhile, research published Wednesday by the Polish research institute, ARC, shows that unemployment rates amongst Poland's rural population are as high as 58 per cent.

ARC's research, which focused on the problem of unemployment in rural Poland for the first time, found high rate of long-term unemployment in rural areas of Poland, according to Adam Czarnecki of the research institute. Almost 58 per cent of agricultural workers had been unemployed for more than three years.

Farmers and other agricultural workers do not normally appear in Polish unemployment statistics owing to their official status.

Farmers are entitled to social insurance and are expected to make their living from agriculture. Farmers' income, especially that of small farmers with less than 15 hectares of land, was found to be shockingly low.

Only 12 per cent had an income comparable with the national average and many were living on the poverty threshold.

At least 40 per cent of respondents had a per capita income of less than 500 zloty (172 dollars).

Seasonal work abroad was one way that farmers could supplement their meagre incomes.
Source: playfuls.com