The last barrier falls

EUROPE On May 1st the labour markets of Germany, Austria and Switzerland finally opened up to workers from the EU countries of Central Europe. Are we now going to charge headlong into this new freedom? Will all our specialists migrate in order to earn their daily bread, as was the case a few years ago - a time when the budget airlines offering flights to London and Dublin found themselves overwhelmed by the demand for tickets from this part of the world? "Opening the borders for Polish workers, for example, will have a lot of influence on the Polish job market. The credit crunch has made the Polish economy - including the construction and real estate sectors - more open to change. There is an increasing willingness to suddenly relocate, within Poland as well as abroad. I think that it is not only construction workers in Poland who will want to go, for instance, to Germany, but also those Poles currently working in countries such as Belgium and Holland, where we continue to be regarded as a source of cheap labour. Thanks to the lifting of the restrictions, Polish workers will not only be able to gain financially but will also be closer to their homeland, which could be another reason for them to relocate," suggests Małgorzata Tryfon, a senior sales and marketing specialist at the Data Bank of Engineers. She reminds us that workers from the construction industry, such as site managers or project managers, are flexible and can easily adjust to changes in the location of their work by moving, for example, from Poznań to the TriCity in a matter of weeks.

Our building sites will not be empty
Research by the Otto Poland temporary employment agency estimates that 300,000-400,000 Poles might indeed leave for Germany in order to find work, but the agency's experts emphasise that the most sought after workers are people with technical educational backgrounds, such as mechanics and electrical/electronic equipment fitters (according to the current data, German employers can provide employment for around 14,000 people in these professions), doctors, medical staff, carers (12,000) and hotel staff (10,000). Construction workers constitute only one segment of the market. According to Guido Vreuls, the CEE director of Otto Poland and board member of Otto Workforce, a significant exodus of employees to Germany is simply not going to happen. In his opinion, some people will probably decide to give it a try and will find work there. What makes this different from the opening up of the  UK and Dutch markets, in 2004 and 2007 respectively, is the fact that the main motivation for people to leave now is not for higher salaries. Many young people will first of all want to gain experience abroad. A comparison of salaries in Poland and Germany shows that German pay is 2-3 times higher than what can be earned in Poland.  Of course, the costs of transport and living in Germany also need to be factored into this equation.
Manpower Poland's research also draws similar conclusions. Manpower Professional currently runs about 70 recruitment projects for German and Austrian employers. Engineering staff of different specialisations are the most sought after, with the German market having a particular need for specialists from the automotive sectors. Most Austrian enquiries, on the other hand, are for IT specialists.

Poles to Germany or Germans to Poland?
"I think that the extent of labour migration being written about in the media is grossly exaggerated. We have not noticed this among Hochtief Polska employees. I am also not worried about workers moving in droves across the Odra river in the near future. Our neighbours are still having problems providing their employees with things to do as the crisis continues to affect industry over there. Furthermore, people employed in our German branches are being transferred to work in Poland, for example, to places like Świnoujście, where we are currently working on a project. There is a similar situation in the TriCity, where we are now preparing an offer which involves the cooperation of German colleagues. Of course, this does not change the fact that each of our construction sites are mainly populated by Polish staff," explains Agnieszka Wierszyłło, the human resources director at Hochtief Polska. She does point out that employees have stopped being competitive due to the obligation to pay minimum salaries, regardless of the fact of whether an employee is a German or a Pole.

Is the grass really greener on the other side?
"Another aspect of migrating labour forces is the lesson that Poles learnt in Ireland, for example. After the first economic downturn, some decided to return home. Meanwhile, their friends who had stayed managed to get promoted, improve their living standards and change their jobs for better ones. This leads people to weigh up more carefully all the pros and cons regarding relocation," says Hochtief Polska's human resources director.
What else could put people off leaving? "Language remains the biggest hurdle. Only a few years ago a Polish engineer on a building site would speak only Polish, or possibly also Russian. The popularity of the language of Shakespeare has been growing for the last few years, but knowledge of German more often remains at a basic level," emphasises Małgorzata Tryfon of the Data Bank of Engineers.
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