Poland to open job market to workers from Moldova, Georgia

Poland's labor ministry plans to open the country's labor market to citizens of more non-EU countries, including the citizens of Georgia and Moldova. According to the ministry's estimations, the first workers from these countries could arrive to Poland as early as next spring, the External Service of the Polish Radio reports, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. It was back in February that the Polish Ministry of Labor and Social Policy introduced new regulations allowing the citizens of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia to work in Poland for up to six months. A number of regulations are to be changed to make the employment of such workers convenient - the bureaucratic procedures are to be shortened and employers will be able to apply for job permissions for the period of even three years, not only one year, as has been done so far. According to the ministry’s estimates in the season there is a national shortage of even four hundred thousand farm workers. One of the reasons for such a situation is a massive migration of Polish workers to countries which became available to them when Poland joined the EU in May 2004. Consultations with the Georgian and Moldovan labor-dealing ministries are underway.