Labour market opened to Bulgarian and Romanian workers

Since 1 January 2007, the Czech Republic has opened up its labour market to allow the free movement of labour from the two new EU Member States, Bulgaria and Romania. According to the Czech social partners, allowing the free movement of workers from these countries should not threaten the stability of the domestic labour market.

On 1 January 2007, the Czech Republic opened its labour market to allow the free movement of workers from the two new EU Member States, Bulgaria and Romania. The Czech government took this decision on 7 December 2006 in anticipation of the official entry of these two countries to the EU on 1 January 2007. The Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Petr Necas, also a member of the Civic Democratic Party (Obcanská demokratická strana, ODS), stated that if the Czech Republic was to prohibit the free movement of workers from the new Member States, it could not possibly petition the ‘old’ EU Member States to allow the free movement of labour. Moreover, if the Czech Republic limited the free movement of labour for newly acceding countries to the EU, it could in doing so weaken its own negotiating position during talks with the older EU Member States to lift restrictions on their labour markets.

Minister Necas is, however, preparing a ‘crisis plan’ which would be implemented if an influx of workers from Bulgaria and Romania threatened the stability of the domestic labour market. According to statistics from the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic (Ministerstvo vnitra Ceské republiky, MV CR), up to 30 September 2006, some 4,642 Bulgarians and 2,808 Romanians had already taken up permanent or long-term residence in the Czech Republic; hence, it would be difficult to envision a further major influx of workers form those countries after the opening up of the labour market.

Mixed attitudes to free movement of labour

As well as ODS, the other parties in parliament support the opening of the labour market to allow the free movement of labour. Spokesperson for the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People’s Party (Krestanská a demokratická unie – Ceskoslovenská strana lidová, KDU-CSL), Ondrej Jakob, emphasised: ‘I don’t think that it will threaten Czech workers.’ A similar view is held by his colleagues from the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (Komunistická strana Cech a Moravy, KSCM) and the Green Party (Strana zelených).

However, the Czech Social Democratic Party (Ceská strana sociálne demokratická, CSSD) voiced some concerns about such a move. In December 2006, the spokesperson for the party, Zdenek Škromach, who was also the former Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, revealed his party’s reservations about lifting labour market restrictions. Mr Škromach believed that the existing discrimination on the EU labour market made the Czech Republic and Slovenia very attractive destinations for low-wage Bulgarian and Romanian workers. In an interview with the newspaper Právo, Mr Škromach stated: ‘If the old countries remain closed and other countries close too, then I would see a definite risk of increased interest in working in the Czech Republic. However, according to indications from both states, the Czech Republic isn’t threatened by an onslaught at the moment.’

However, the Chair of the country’s biggest trade union body, the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions (Ceskomoravská konfederace odborových svazu, CMKOS), Milan Štech, did express particular worries about allowing the free movement of labour from the two new Member States. Mr Štech considers that the Czech Republic should try to protect its own interests by pushing for a European services directive to compel companies and workers to abide by the rules of the state in which they are operating or employed. He warned that: ‘Workers will come offering to work according to the rules in Bulgaria or Romania, for a quarter of the wage. Employers will of course grab them, to increase profits and lower costs.’ For this reason, Mr Štech believes the Czech Republic should carry out careful checks on employers’ adherence to the national employment regulations. At the same time, the trade unions had strongly criticised the limitations on the free movement of labour within the EU.

Experts refute idea of massive influx of migrants

Experts are not concerned about a mass migration of workers from Romania and Bulgaria to the Czech Republic. According to a representative of the Prague office of the International Organisation for Migration (Mezinárodní organizace pro migraci, IOM), Jan Schroth: ‘In the beginning, it will be a question of dozens or hundreds. Those who have some ties here will mostly move here’. He added that specialists from both Member States have been coming to the Czech Republic for a number of years, such as information technology (IT) experts and health workers. This trend was confirmed by MV CR, which has been inviting foreign specialists to the Czech Republic within the framework of a project initiated in 2003; the ministry has now registered 420 interested persons, of whom 174 people are from Bulgaria. ‘It will now be easier for them to look for a job,’ according to Mr Schroth.

A demographer from the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Charles University of Prague (Univerzita Karlova v Praze, UK), Tomáš Kucera, does not anticipate large waves of immigration either. ‘Between the Czech Republic on the one hand and Romania and Bulgaria on the other, there are not such strong migration ties as in the case of many other countries. Also, in the case of Romania, the language barrier is a little bigger, while in the case of Bulgaria there is the issue of greater geographical distance,’ he added.

Nevertheless, Milada Horáková, a researcher at the Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs (Výzkumý ústav práce a sociálních vecí, VÚPSV), highlighted that an influx of workers from Bulgaria and Romania could lead to an increase in certain kinds of criminal activity, such as human trafficking, prostitution and drug dealing. He commented that: ‘In the past, there were problems connected with illegal migration from both countries. But that is a potential possibility, which doesn’t have to come to pass.’

Sona Veverková, Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs