Finding A Polish Plumber Is No Joke In Warsaw By REUTERS

[Demeter]

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-work-poland.html



WARSAW (Reuters) - In western Europe, the Polish plumber has become the cliche of a low-paid immigrant who has profited from the European Union's eastward expansion.

In Poland, it is no joke.

The former communist country is short of everything from plumbers to pilots and that is pushing up wages dramatically and encouraging inflation, which threaten to choke off Poland's own economic boom.

Adrian Wisniewski runs a small building repair firm in Warsaw, when he can find the workers.

"Wait, I have to check whether he is still in Poland," Wisniewski responds to a request for a plumber.

Poland, which has central Europe's biggest economy, estimates that as many as 1.5 million workers have emigrated since the country of 38 million became an EU member in 2004. Most have gone to Britain and Ireland.

"This is a huge threat to economic growth, one that could ruin it all," says Krystyna Iglicka, a labor market expert at the Foreign Affairs Studies Centre think-tank.

Officially, Poland still has one of the highest jobless rates in Europe -- 12 percent according to Polish figures -- but that hides the true picture for businesses in need of workers.

A large number of the registered unemployed also work illegally. Many of those in the countryside live a basic existence and are not actively seeking employment. The number of unemployed is the lowest since the late 1990s.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. When working in the plumbing profession, one always needs to be

mindful of the possibility that 14 elbows equals a shutoff... could save you a bunch of time and draino.

[Egalitariat]

2. They're gonna have to learn to compete

Many countries are about to experience this problem. The best ones will win.

[Kagemusha]

3. Paying workers more = end of prosperity, huh?

Price is the feedback from the economy that separates fact from fiction. The lower wages were fiction that is being harmonized gradually with fact. But hey, people love to live a lie.

[Hardrada]

4. Apparently the Polish plumbers

are not interested in going to Germany. By the way, if people are leaving Poland, there is some territory Germany would like back again if it's not currently in use!

[barb162]

5. There are Polish workers here illegally.

They will get student visas and then just stay. I know one, a relative of an in-law. They say under communism they had money but nothing to buy and under capitalism there's no money but lots to buy.

[Hardrada]

7. Well, Nixon thought the US needed more plumbers!!

Guess his message still resonates.

[Demeter]

6. Germany Has All the East German Plumbers

More than enough. Thank god plumbing isn't political.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Germany has tougher restrictions on workers from the newer EU countries

than some others such as the UK. Compare:

Germany

Like Austria, Germany has insisted on continuing restrictions on workers from the former communist states, beyond its eastern borders. Workers from these countries will have to apply for work permits until at least 2009. However, the country issued 500,000 of these permits between 2004 and 2006. "In practice Germany has given as many people work as other big countries," EU Employment Commissioner Vladimir Spidla said on 2 May 2006. Germany has also imposed restrictions on workers from Bulgaria and Romania.

...

UK

The UK was one of the three countries, along with Ireland and Sweden, to place no restrictions on workers from the 2004 entrants. However, workers have to register and only become eligible for benefits such as Jobseeker's Allowance and income support after working continuously in the UK for at least a year.

After an unexpectedly large influx of workers from Central Europe - an estimated 600,000 in two years - the UK announced that it would impose restrictions on workers from Bulgaria and Romania. Up to 20,000 will be allowed to take low-skilled jobs in agriculture or food processing, high-skilled workers will be able to apply for work permits to perform a skilled job, and students will be able to work part-time. Self-employed people from Bulgaria and Romania are already allowed to work in the UK, and this will continue.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3513889.stm