Czechs to open door wider to foreign workers

...pressures on the labour market in the fast-growing central European country.

Under the new 'Green Card' policy, the procedure for getting a Czech work permit would require fewer documents and the waiting time would be cut to about 30 days from around 180 days, Labour and Social Affairs Minister Petr Necas said.

"The Czech Republic, given its growth, needs workforce and needs it also from countries from outside the European Union," Necas told a news conference.

"We want to launch this very quickly, if possible it should start functioning during next year," he said.

At the moment, the 10-million Czech Republic has about 220,000 legal foreign workers.

Many of them come from fellow EU countries such as Slovakia and thus need no work permits.

The Green Cards would be valid for three years, unlike current 1-2 year permits, and workers will be allowed to seek a new job if they lose the one they originally took, without having to return home immediately.

The Czechs still earn significantly lower salaries than west Europeans. But they make enough -- $1,120 pre-tax per month on average -- to lure large numbers of often illegal workers from poorer countries such as Ukraine.

Relative to other east Europeans like the Poles, not many Czechs have left their country to find better-paying jobs in the west since their EU entry in 2004. Those leaving tend to be skilled specialists such as medics.

Strong economic growth, of 6 percent annually in the past three years, has slashed unemployment to 6.2 percent, and building contractors and manufacturers have been complaining that they face difficulties to hire staff.

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]