Foreman required – immediately

A huge outflow of Polish building workers took place when western labour markets were opened. The reduced number of professional schools and construction colleges also resulted in staff shortfalls. One way in which Polish construction firms are coping with this is by importing workers from abroad

According to data compiled by the Polish Union of Construction Employers and the Construction and Real Estate Confederation, around 150,000 skilled workers are required in the industry. There are two main reasons for this. The first is the unexpected construction boom, the second is the scale of Polish emigration to both eastern and western Europe.
Zbigniew Bachman, director of the Polish Chamber of Industry and Trade in Construction (PIPHB) remarks that: “I estimate that 2 to 2.5 mln people have left Poland since the borders were opened, including 300,000 from the construction sector. But it would be untrue to suggest they all went west. A substantial number of construction workers are employed in Moscow, for example, on unbelievably huge investments for which a whole army is required. That apart, eastern building sites also pay well.”

Bricks of gold
Construction industry wages are steadily climbing.
According to the wynagrodzenia.pl website, the average wage in the construction industry – defined as the statistical median – amounts to PLN 2,600. The lowest wages go to rank-and-file workers, but even here one person in ten earns less than PLN 1,000 gross, while half of all specialists earn between PLN 1,850 and 3,800. But in larger cities these earnings can sometimes be several times the salary levels in smaller, provincial cities.
The highest wages are pocketed by valued and highly skilled workers who are capable, for instance, of using specialist machinery. The General Directorate of National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) several months ago revealed that a worker holding licences to drive vehicles used in the construction of motorways can earn a gross monthly wage of at least PLN 8,000.
Zbigniew Bachman claims that: “Construction workers’ wages have spiralled though low wages still exist. It once cost PLN 3,000 to construct
1 sqm of a building, whereas today the rate has risen to PLN 4,300 per sqm, which means wages have also climbed accordingly. No one wants to build for less. Cost estimates drawn up several years earlier for this year’s investments bear little relation to present day workers’ salaries, machinery rents and the cost of building materials. This is why no one can be found prepared to participate in many tenders. This has been the case with construction of motorways, for example, the cost estimates of which were calculated several years ago.”

Bumpy road to the east
Polish companies specializing in the construction market often decide to employ foreign workers. Contractors select different countries, but there is only one direction
– the east. Contrary to appearances, bringing workers in to Poland from beyond the eastern frontiers is no easy business, mainly due to the multitude of regulations which entrepreneurs have to overcome. The construction industry is unanimous on this matter: the Parliamentary act on employing foreigners must be amended, without which market chaos is inevitable.
In Zbigniew Bachman’s opinion: “An influx of individual workers from abroad is bound to harm local labour markets. Should building workers arrive in Poland without site managers, contracting companies will find them to be of little use. Foreigners will have to learn the Polish language during the first six months in Poland (to communicate with Polish managers), as well as how to work on Polish construction sites.”
At present, a Polish employer has to submit dossiers of all people brought in from abroad. An application for a single worker requires a payment of PLN 1,000. A letter is sent to the local government head who delivers his opinion, but only after having earlier checked whether there is a local worker who could be employed on that job. The procedure can last even several months, but the rapidly growing market simply cannot wait that long.

Wait but be active
Polnord is one company which is not waiting, with hands in pockets, for the act to be amended. On April 4th it signed a letter of intent with China International Industry and Commerce, a Beijing developer company, on bringing in workers from China. Polnord vice president Wojciech Ciurzyński, confirms that the first group of workers from China will probably arrive here in six months time. Unofficially it is also known that Royalton Holdings Asia, a Chinese company with Polish capital, will also be importing workers from China. The group is to include both Chinese and Hindus who will probably start work this year on one of Łódź’s construction sites. Royalton Holdings Asia has, however, refused to confirm this.
J.W. Construction is yet another company which has set its sights on the east. The first group of 60 Tadjiks arrived in Poland in April, while 120 Uzbeks also brought in by that company will soon start working on Polish construction sites. Jerzy Zdrzałka, J.W. Construction’s board president, remarks that: “We encountered no end of problems in employing Polish workers. Warsaw’s rate of unemployment, even before the high wave of emigration to the West, was
a mere 5 pct. The wages of foreign workers are, admittedly, somewhat less that those paid to Polish workers, but after adding all the costs which the company has to cover to import workers into Poland, a foreigner costs just as much as
a Polish employee. We looked for candidates throughout the east, with Ukrainians not taken into consideration since a construction boom is also taking off there. We succeeded in making contact with a Tadjik company organizing construction teams for Russian sites. Following recruiting on the Tadjik and Uzbek markets, it is sending workers to Poland. Preparations to receive foreigners for work in Poland are a protracted effort lasting at least several months. The regulations on related questions are highly complex and are not adapted to today’s realities.”

Learn, learn
and learn again
Legal headaches are only the first barrier which Polish employers have to overcome. A long road still lies ahead concerning how to teach foreign workers how to work in Poland.
Jerzy Zdrzałka adds that: “Our workers hold one-year permits to live and work in Poland. At the moment they are receiving instructions in work safety, while we are also verifying just what they really know. The length of their sojourn in Poland depends on their performance. The first of the groups we brought in is currently working in Warsaw on the residential estates on ul. Lazurowa and ul. Górczewska. Some of these may be shifted to work in Łódź. For the time being we are not planning to import a larger number of foreigners since we still have enough workers of our own, though importing cannot be ruled out in the future.”
Jonathan Cohen, Quinlan Private Golub’s director of construction, admits that: “Employing foreign workers on building sites can be a risky business, for health, safety and work quality, which results from language differences and lack of experience. This is why in a situation in which a contractor wants to use foreign labour, we want him to demonstrate the way in which he wants to tackle those problems. In our opinion, Polish workers are among the best in Europe, which is why they find it so easy to find work on foreign markets, while workers from Romania, Bulgaria and the former Soviet countries require greater supervision – since only then can they be able to reach Polish standards. The question now is – where are contractors going to find additional site managers and how are additional supervision costs going to be covered? It is quite obvious that the employment of foreign workers is, by itself, not going to solve the headaches facing the industry.”  
Zuzanna Wiak