The government is preparing a bill for this fall that will shorten the time it takes for non-EU people to get work permits in Romania, because the labor shortage is really alarming.
“Employers in Transylvania have been asking us more and more often about the possibility to bring Syrian migrants to work in their factories, because they are unable to find workforce,” Elena Antoneac, head of operations with relocation service company Nestlers Group, said.
“There are no longer any high unemployment regions in Romania, maybe except for Vaslui (eastern Romania), because in the rest of the regions people are either working or have emigrated and companies, especially those in the automotive industry, are no longer able to find any workers. The current government and the future ones, as well, have to understand that there is no other way to attract investments than bring workforce from other countries.”
Automotive industry companies in western and central Romania relocated hundreds of employees from Moldavia to the areas where they had plants last year, to be able to carry out the contracts they had already signed and had trouble finding staff for. Two such examples are Leoni and Fujikura, with the latter having to bring 900 people for its plants in Cluj and Dej from Moldavia.
Elena Antoneac said the representatives of the private sector had a series of meetings with the representatives of the Economy Ministry and of the Immigration authorities with the Interior Ministry to discuss changing the Romanian legislation so as to make it easier for migrants from outside the European Union to get jobs in Romania.
“They’ve been going by the ‘let the investors handle it’ idea so far. And investors have, indeed, been handling it so far, they reached agreements with prisons to find labor and went to churches to try and find unskilled workers, but there aren’t any other sources of labor anymore. This is why we would like to warn the current and future governments that there will be no more investments unless there’s workforce available.”
Several companies have indeed signed agreements with the ANP, the authority the runs the country’s prisons, to hire prisoners. TRW Automotive, Rilug (shoe manufacturer) and AEM (electric meter maker) hired about 400 prisoners (about 40% of the total) from the Timisoara Penitentiary. Fujikura automotive, too, hired 150 prisoners from the Gherla Penitentiary last year.
Securing a work permit for a non-EU citizen who wants to work in Romania takes about four months, which is too long, considering some companies may need to bring in experts for a short period of time.
“As far as we are concerned, the next pressing issue for Romania is the lack of workforce on all segments: workers, specialized and ultra-specialized people in various industries. There’s no point in companies coming to build plants in Romania attracted by the fiscal relaxation, if the Government is not already devising quick and easy medium and long-term workforce solutions for the business sector. And I don’t mean foreign investors here, but also domestic companies that go abroad in search of contracts and may not provide the required volumes because of the personnel shortage.”
She said that even though Romania has one of the lowest profit taxes in the world, 16%, and a dividend tax cut to 5% from 16% this year and is attractive for investments, no investor will come to an area without available workforce.
“If a company needs ten Indian citizens for a month or two who are good engineers in a certain field, it cannot get them here because of legislation (…) A bill to modify visa legislation to shorten the time it takes to get a working visa is currently in the works (…) Representatives of various companies or HR people have been asking us more and more often if we can facilitate access to immigrants (Syrians) who want to work.”
Poland has already found solutions for the workforce shortage by brining workers from Asian countries, Elena Antoneac said.
Out of a population of about 20 million people of which 8.9 million are fit for work, only 6 million are employed (including those informally employed), while the rest work in subsistence farming, are freelancers, unemployed or people who make no effort to get a job. Those who are not employed and work in agriculture take factory jobs but quit for the summer to work the land or go to work in the agricultural sector abroad for a few months, employers say.
Romania was left without enough available workforce after more than 2.4 million Romanians fit for work left the country to earn five times what they would have made back home or because they could not find a job in their hometown.
With an average wage of EUR460 per month, the second lowest of the EU after Bulgaria, Romania can hardly attract workforce from other EU countries.
Under the circumstances, the workforce deficit becomes another factor besides the poor infrastructure that prevents attracting new investments.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)