Quotas for workers from third countries: warns of threats: some companies may not survive

Set a limit, but you can adjust it

Until now, workers from third countries arriving in Lithuania have been exempted from the obligation to obtain a work permit if their profession has been included in the list of lost professions approved by the Director of the Employment Service. The professions included in this list also received visas and residence permits more easily.

Although the number of employees who want to work on this list has not been limited in the past, the order will change starting in 2021 – quotas will be introduced early next year.

According to information provided by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (SADM), in 2021 the quotas will allow to employ 32.2 thousand. foreigners whose profession is included in the list of employees of the missing professions in Lithuania. Of which: 11.6 thousand in the area of ​​employee services, 9.5 thousand. – industry, 9.1 thousand – under construction and 2 thousand. in agriculture.

It is true that it is emphasized that compliance with quotas will not mean that a worker can no longer enter the country to work, but rather that he or she will face a more complicated hiring procedure.

“After using the quota, it will be possible to continue employing foreigners from disappeared professions, but the general procedure established in the Aliens Act will apply, that is, after a labor market test and it is found that there is no Lithuanian citizen or of the European Union, a work permit or a decision will be required on the suitability of the labor market needs. <...>

The size of the quota itself may also be revised during the year, taking into account the real situation of the labor market ”, commented Edita Banienė, Head of the Department of Communication of the Ministry of Social Affairs.

According to the ministry, the joint introduction of a quota for lost professions for third-country nationals was due to a situation in which some foreigners who were issued national visas at the invitation of companies did not work in those companies such as Employers of disappeared professions and businessmen did not know where their invited foreigners were.

“The quotas introduced are expected to help assess the real need for these workers,” the responses said.

According to the Employment Service, from the beginning of January to the end of October, a total of 5,523 workers (drivers) from third countries were hired in the service sector, 1,712 in the construction sector and 489 in the sector industrial.

Employers: there can be no quotas for highly qualified employees

Danas Arlauskas, director of the Lithuanian Employers’ Confederation, told Delfi that when it comes to introducing quotas for third-country employees, we need to talk about several key moments.

The first, as you mentioned, is related to the fact that Lithuania is in the European Union and it is very important for us how the competitive environment of our country looks on a regional scale, compared to Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Germany.

“We are seeing very liberal laws in Germany that encourage the arrival of immigrants. In Austria, an immigrant can participate in recycling programs.

We also see that if Trump tried to stop immigration, then Biden promises a green light to highly skilled immigrants, “he said.

According to D. Arlauskas, opinions about third country employees differ in the business community. Some, as he assured, say that these workers are needed as much as possible, others that they are not.

“There are 200 thousand people in Lithuania. Unemployed. I am of the opinion that it is better that we need those 200 thousand. People from Lithuania, but a recycling system must be established, as they are now dependent. We pay them for incapacity to work, there is an unemployment trap, they are not going to work themselves.

When it comes to quotas, we must focus on high-quality, qualified professionals and attract talent so that there can be no quota for those workers. As far as possible, it is necessary to facilitate their coming so that they can be here with their families ”, said D. Arlauskas.

“When it comes to the transport sector, there is no need to restrict it either, as they do not create competition. They work abroad and we are too small a market.

An example is from Jonava. The company was looking for drivers for 30 employees and did not receive any requests from Lithuanians. There are such specialties, professions that don’t even need to be restricted.

The Belarusian IT sector has already surpassed us in several respects, and we also need to boost those skilled specialists. Latvia has already created a system to integrate Belarusian IT specialists into the economy, so we have already lost here, ”said D. Arlauskas.

Povilauskas: this is a step back

Asked by the economist of the bank SEB Tadas Povilauskas, who evaluated how the lack of quotas for employees from third countries from 2021, said that it was a simple increase in bureaucracy, since the approved procedure did not mean that it would not be possible. hire more foreigners than allowed. The recruitment procedures will simply take longer as you will need to obtain a permit from the Employment Service.

“The desire to control the employment of foreigners in the interest of the government vis-à-vis the country’s population is understandable, but there is a strong desire that the allocation of quotas be truly fair and not disrupt certain businesses, especially exporters.

These quotas are, I would say, a throwback from the order that existed a few years ago, when there was no such list of missing professions and that arose precisely to reduce bureaucracy and allow companies to hire foreigners more quickly in Lithuania. Is the business environment improving in Lithuania? Of course not. Will it be better for the unemployed? Not in the short term either, ”he said.

T. Povilauskas stated that the small quota of employees in the service sector from third countries, which amounts to 11.6 thousand, seems suspicious, because in the companies of the transport sector there are over 75 thousand. more than half of the drivers of heavy vehicles are foreigners, so it is clear that such a quota does not make life easier and only makes it difficult to hire workers for this sector, which is already bleeding and raising tugboat registration and recruitment of workers to Poland.

“In general, most of these missing professions are in companies that are export companies (drivers, industrial plant operators, fitters, welders, locksmiths, tailors, etc.), so it would be strange to stop the development of this type of companies or simply not allow them to survive, that companies must base their growth on Lithuanians.

I understand that it would be great to have a fast growing company in our country that pays relatively high wages and a small one to leave, but such changes are constantly taking place and require Lithuanians to improve their qualifications. In the construction sector, the appearance of quotas is more justified, since it is a sector oriented to the domestic market ”, commented the economist.

Quotas pose a threat to the economy and businesses

Speaking about the quotas introduced, Karolina Mickutė, an expert from the Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI), said that the legalization of the quota of third-country nationals lacking professions did not meet the needs and trends of the market even when there was no idea from a pandemic and quarantine. In a labor market affected by quarantine, the application of the quota poses an even greater threat to the economy and the viability of companies in situations of labor shortages.

“Companies need a manpower to adapt to the challenges of quarantine and further develop their operations.

There is currently a shortage of workers in the labor market, but local workers cannot or simply do not want to fill these vacancies. Once the established quota for foreign workers has been completed, a more complex and lengthy recruitment procedure is applied. “Any foreigner who wants to be employed would be subject to a labor market test, so there is no guarantee that the required third-country national will be allowed to work,” the expert commented.

In his view, at a time when companies need the greatest possible freedom of movement, the application of quotas only increases uncertainty and limits the ability to make timely decisions.

“In the context of quarantine, when it is recognized that there is a particular shortage of workers in some areas, such regulation is detrimental to the economy. At least a temporary suspension of the quota would make it easier for the economy to survive the quarantine period and recover afterwards, ”he said.

Maurice: we crossed a branch we sat on

Sigismund Mauricas, an economist at Luminor Bank, also spoke about the introduction of quotas for third-country employees starting in 2021.

“By limiting quotas for foreign workers, we will not only achieve nothing, but we will make it more difficult for those companies that operate in foreign markets. First, there are the service exporters and the export industry. We are crossing the branch where we are sitting, because we are stopping the flow of money to Lithuania ”, Ž. Mauricas.

According to the expert, the appearance of such quotas is difficult to explain for rational reasons, because under the rules of the EU labor market it simply will not work.

“The movement of labor between EU countries is not restricted and there are already companies in Europe employing workers. Therefore, without the possibility to bring employees from third countries, the company is likely to simply hire them in Poland or Latvia, where taxes and other conditions will be more favorable than in Lithuania. Therefore, the foreign worker quotas will not only not solve the problems, but we will still lose part of the taxes for the Lithuanian budget, ”said the economist.