Poland will Recruit Skilled Workers from the Philippines

"We are on the right track to an agreement," deputy labor minister Stanisław Szwed told the Polish Press Agency. "I hope that in the fall we will be able to secure at least a provisional agreement." He added that a provisional draft of the agreement would be sent by the Philippine authorities.

Mr Szwed has been taking part in meetings with Patricia Anna V. Paez, the Philippine Ambassador to Poland, concerning a future agreement. The deputy minister also highlighted that the talks had taken place at the initiative of the Philippine authorities. 

Around 10-11 percent of the more than 100 million-strong Philippine population are overseas workers, who can only be legally deployed to countries certified by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs. Following a large increase in the number of workers leaving the Philippines to work in the 1970s and 1980s, the Philippine government enacted the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act in 1995 in order to "institute the policies of overseas employment and establish a higher standard of protection and promotion of the welfare of migrant workers and their families." 

"[The Philippines] have good solutions because they are co-ordinated by a government employment agency. Poland was chosen because our country is close to them culturally, due to the Catholic faith among other things," Mr Szwed said. 

"During the talks it was firmly stressed that we have a good Labor Code, that we have regulated issues concerning minimum wage and hourly pay. That is important to them," Mr Szwed explained. 

He went on to stress that the Filipino workers would be employed in Poland under the same conditions as at present, however they would be more strictly regulated both in Poland and by the...