Migration has become an important aspect of the socio-economic development of contemporary Poland. It is now hard to imagine the Polish economy without the work of foreigners. It allows to fill shortages in the labour market, which have been one of the most important barriers to the development of companies for several years. The systematic estimates show that the increase in demand for migrant workers could be as high as several percent per year in the long term.

Despite the main factors behind the relentless growth in the demand for foreign workers, which have been observed in Poland for years (rapid economic development, falling number of people of working age, or low unemployment), the rate at which we have become a recognised country in Europe and the world receiving labour migrants poses new challenges. First and foremost, the challenges include ensuring the best possible adaptation of the regulations governing foreigners' access to the Polish labour market and the remodelling of the labour migration management policy.

The Ministry of Economic Development, Labour and Technology carries out works in this regard aiming mainly at introducing in-depth changes to the operation of the system for legalising the work of foreigners in Poland, adapted to the dynamics of the labour market and the needs of Polish employers. These works are going to result in a new law on the employment of foreigners.

Consultation of the draft Act on employment of foreigners 

Today, Deputy Minister Iwona Michałek held a meeting with the representatives of labour offices in Gdynia, continuing the initial consultations of the draft Act on the employment of foreigners in Poland.

The Polish economy must open up to the flow of foreign workers which strengthen it. The dependence of economic growth on the availability of foreign labour supply will only increase in the upcoming years.

Increasing the share of employees with higher qualifications remains a challenge for Poland. This particular issue requires multilateral action. Despite the fact that there is a visible increase in the influx of employees in certain IT professions, in general specialists remain a small group among all foreigners working in Poland. This situation calls for additional measures, which could include both the promotion of Poland as an attractive place of work for specialists and special programmes addressed to specialists, created, for instance, by employers, local governments or the government.

“One of the most crucial issues is to change the pattern of short-term and circular migration to longer-term migration. This will prove beneficial not only for employers, as from their perspective, today's procedure of employing foreigners often involves constant visits to public offices, but the changes are also going to benefit foreigners. Having a more stable and longer basis for work, foreign nationals are going to find it much easier to integrate into the Polish labour market and our society”

– Deputy Minister for Economic Development, Labour and Technology Iwona Michałek stated during a meeting with representatives of labour offices.

“Ensuring that the entire procedure for a work permit – beginning from application, communication between the parties, payment of the fee to the issuance of the permit – is carried out electronically is going to be a major improvement. Full digitalisation is not only going to increase the pace of the procedures, but also open up completely new possibilities for comes to managing labour migration data

 – Director of the Department of the Labour Market at the MEDLT Ewa Flaszyńska added.

Director Ewa Flaszyńska stressed:

“A person employing a foreigner will have access to a dedicated account allowing him or her to manage all issues related to access to the labour market. The voivodeship offices, which are currently experiencing considerable bottlenecks when issuing permits, will become the second instance for considering applications submitted to the district labour offices. All these changes are going to ensure that the offices in charge of legalising the employment of foreign nationals are going to work closed to the employees.

The meeting was attended by the Deputy Mayor of Gdynia, Michał Guć, and Magdalena Sroka. 

Draft Act on employment support and Act on employment of foreigners

The most important proposals for change prepared by the Ministry of Economic Development, Labour and Technology concern:

• streamlining and increasing the coherence of the institutional system responsible for admitting foreigners to the labour market,
• maintaining geographic preferences in labour market access and considering extending the application of the preferences to other countries than today,
• ensuring that employers are able to employ foreigners for longer periods and on a continuous basis more easily than today,
• implementing more effective procedures for admitting foreigners to the labour market and shortening the duration of proceedings;
• introduction of a fully electronic communication between the employer and the office,
• facilitations for farmers with seasonal workers,
• introducing regulations to limit abuse and to reduce the risk of lowering standards on the Polish labour market.