Czech companies expect 2,000 workers from Serbia annually from September

(Illustration) The Czech Chamber of Commerce and their companies expect the first workers from Serbia to arrive under the program of a facilitated procedure of the employment of foreign workers on September 1. This program of the government and the Czech Chamber of Commerce would bring around 2,000 people from Serbia a year to work at Czech companies which have trouble finding workers.

– This is quality workforce, from the car industry, skilled in its trade. The Chamber of Commerce plans to engage directly in Serbia, which is easier for us to do than in Ukraine – the president of the Czech Chamber of Commerce, Vladimir Dlouhy, said on Czech public TV

Through this facilitated regime, which already includes Ukraine, the Philippines and Mongolia, Czech companies with over 10 employees which have been operating for at least two years in production, services or the public sector, with the recommendation of the Czechinvest agency, can seek qualified workforce in Serbia as well and request an employee card and a work permit for the workers they find.

Companies oblige to employ the worker for the period of at least one year and to pay them the same salary paid to the Czech workers, and if the company seeks more than 30 workers, it needs to reach an agreement with representatives of local authorities in the places where the workers will stay.

– So far, this has been solved through the embassy in Belgrade. It would take around three months – said Roman Herden, the spokesperson of Arriva, a company which has brought around 30 workers from Serbia to the Czech Republic in the past two years, starting even before the program of the Czech government was initiated.

The regime of the facilitated employment of foreigners from select countries has proven quite successful in the case of Ukrainian workers, with around 13,000 already employed through the program.

The Czech Chamber of Commerce required the government to have the regime expanded to Serbia last summer, as Czech companies have trouble finding workers at home due to the low unemployment rate, and it is estimated that as many as 194,000 of the total of 280,000 vacancies in the Czech Republic must be filled by foreigners.

Ambasada Češke Republike u Beogradu

Czech Chamber of Commerce

employment of Serbian workers in the Czech Republic

job in the Czech Republic

Vladimir Dlouhy

Czechinvest

Arriva

Roman Herden

regime of facilitated employment of foreigners in the Czech Republic

Embassy of the Czech Republic in Belgrade

demand for workers in the Czech Republic