Romanian Workers

It is only just over a month since Romanians had free movement within the European Union and the floods of workers have not materialised in the UK and elsewhere as feared by UK politicians.

What has happened is that all the political rhetoric has alerted employers across the European Union and beyond of the considerable skills that that can be found within Romania and the ambitious nature of the people.

Undoubtedly some employers, especially the large multinationals, see it as an opportunity to reduce cost and are refusing to pay fees and to screw pay and benefits to the bone. This is a blinkered view and will boomerang on the end user and staff turnover will be considerable and the true cost of employment much higher than imagined as training investment goes to waste.

It is much better to regard the Romanian market as a source of reliable, flexible alternative workers filling skills shortages. This is particularly true where employers are having finding difficulty sourcing locally. This could be because of:

• Location, in a rural area
• In an area of high competition for common skills
• Specialist nature of the required skills

To date we have located the following skills from within Romania:

• Builders
• Landscapers
• Health care professionals
• Food processors including butchers and deboners
• Manufacturing workers
• IT professionals
• Engineering skills
• Trade skills, like welders, plumbers and mechanics
• Hospitality

And as yet have not been defeated by a requirement although one client declined to proceed as they felt the costs were too high which is their prerogative.

We are now seeing interest from beyond the European Union with clients in the Middle East and Australia making enquiries.

Ironically all the hostile press has had a positive influence on interest in Romania proving there is no such thing as bad publicity and the law of unintended consequences applies once more.

The law in Romania is quite clear in that a contract of employment has to be offered and accepted before a worker leaves Romania and this is causing a few clients to cough and splutter but new systems are bedding in and we are impressed by the quality of candidates and the ability to communicate in English.

We welcome all employer enquiries of whatever nature and we’ll be hearing more about sourcing from Romania as 2014 progresses.

 

Author: Chris Slay

MD: Skills Provision Limited