It is a well-known fact that the number of Ukrainian citizens working in the territory of the Republic of Poland has reached an extraordinary scale. Today, according to various estimates, there are already more than a million Ukrainian workers in Poland. On the other hand, given the current situation in Ukraine, the trend towards a constant increase in the number of Ukrainians looking for work in the EU, and most of all in Poland, will continue.
At the same time, it is worth noting that the current Polish legislation in the field of employment of foreigners does not fully meet the challenges of the modern labor market.
The most globally problematic area in this context is the field of employment of foreigners under the so-called simplified procedure, based on the registration of a corresponding application by the employer in the territorial labor department. Such an application certifies the right of a foreigner to work in Poland for no more than 6 months a year, and serves as the basis for obtaining a work visa.
However, the imperfect procedure for handling these employer applications creates a field for significant abuses. It is no secret that fictitious applications for obtaining a work visa can be easily purchased today both in Ukraine and in Poland. Cases of the spread of fake applications, to which, as a rule, the employees themselves have nothing to do, have become common. For example, it remains possible to provide in the application that a foreigner will work for 6 months not in one term, but in separate periods throughout the year. On the basis of such an application, in the future, to issue a work visa for a year, and later, based on applications from other employers, to work not for 6 months, but for the entire period of validity of this visa. And this list can be continued for a long time.
All this creates unnecessary obstacles not only for foreign workers, but, above all, for Polish employers. Good faith companies, especially those founded by Ukrainians, must actually constantly prove that they are submitting applications for the employment of a foreigner not for further “sale”, but for real work. And after such an application is processed and a visa is issued to the employee on its basis, they have no guarantees that such an employee will actually start working, and not “disappear” in the EU in search of a better job.
It should also be noted that the need to make changes in this area is also dictated by the need for Poland to implement the provisions of Directive 2014/36/UE of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26.02.2014, which was supposed to happen by the end of September last year.
Today, work on improving the legal regulation of the work of foreigners in Poland is ongoing. The latest version of the draft amendments is under consideration by the Council of Ministers.
In particular, it is proposed to introduce the institute of seasonal work for foreigners. A permit for such work will be issued only for certain areas of economic activity (agriculture, tourism, etc.) for a period of 9 months a year. To obtain the right to seasonal work, a foreigner must provide a contract with the employer, an insurance policy, indicate the address of permanent residence and, after receiving a visa, actually appear at the labor office.
The existing procedure for temporary employment of foreigners based on the employer’s application should be preserved, however, with certain changes. In particular, it is planned to create a single labor register of foreigners in Poland, which will accumulate information about labor migrants, with access to this information for employees of the labor office, border service, consular institutions, etc.
When the changes will actually be made and what they will consist of is currently unknown. It remains only to hope that the planned amendment will qualitatively solve the existing problems in the field of employment of foreigners in Poland, both in the interests of the employees themselves and of bona fide Polish employers.
