Changes to regulations on short-term employment of foreigners

On Thursday, amendments to the act on promoting employment and labour market institutions were adopted. 25 MPs were in favour of the act, which projects, among other things, introduction of a fee for registering employer declarations on the need to employ foreigners (30 PLN). The goal of introducing the fee is reducing abuses of law and providing financing that is to be used by starostes to perform the task. Thanks to that, customer service at poviat job offices is to become more efficient.

The proposed solutions are to affect foreigners performing short-term work. This mainly concerns citizens of Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus. They will be able to make use of the simplified procedure of access to the labour market. Apart from the already existing work permit that is issued by the voivode for the period of up to three years, a seasonal work permit is to be introduced. There are also plans to create a foreigner work register including information on work permits, also seasonal work permits, and declarations submitted for the purpose of registration.

The proposed bill also assumes that the declaration may not be registered, if it is determined it was submitted under false pretences, for the purpose other than providing work for a given entity. If the declaration is issued by the staroste, a given person will be able to perform work on its basis for the period of six months during consecutive 12 months.

What is important, the entity offering work to a foreigner will be obliged to submit information on the person taking up or not taking up work.

The act is a response to the results of the inspections carried out by Chief Labour Inspectorate in the recent years. The 2016 inquiry showed that the biggest group of foreigners employed illegally (over 84 percent) were the citizens of Ukraine. A year earlier, an inspection indicated that over 30 percent of foreigners had not taken up work with the employer who had issued declaration on the intention to employ them at their company.