Warsaw employers need workers

At the height of the Christmas shopping season, many of them are in need of temporary workers. Job offers and “wanted” notices are visible in shop windows all over Warsaw, as employers desperately search for bakers, waiters, shop assistants and cooks.

But such employees are hard to find – for many reasons.
“We have been short of staff since the summer holidays,” Barbara Olejarczyk, manager of Gobi delicatessen, told Gazeta Wyborcza Stoleczna. “People prefer to go and work abroad.”

Low wages paid in the Polish capital are often cited for this exodus. Warsaw workers know their worth and are no longer willing to accept the pay offered, some say.

“Warsaw depraves and spoils people,” said Piotr Malecki, co-owner of Tomiteks, a chain of second-hand clothes shops. “Instead of hiring Warsaw citizens, we have to provide transport for our workers from outside of the city.”

The problem is by no means restricted to the capital. The situation is similar throughout the country. Redundancy no longer seems to be an issue, because since joining the EU, Poland’s jobless rate has declined significantly.

According to Gazeta Prawna, the economic situation in Poland is favorable but what might be a threat to it is the shortage of workers and their unwillingness to accept just any job.
Aleksander Kornatowski, deputy director of the Voivodship Employment Office, said the time when employers could dominate the job market is over.

Employers still offer the same wages as two years ago, but the situation is different now, he told Gazeta Wyborcza Stoleczna. Today Poles simply refuse to work for wages that do not allow them to provide for their families.

Thus, apparently the only thing employers can do to attract workers is increase wages.

According to the magazine “Puls Biznesu,” they already do, although reluctantly, as they fear increasing inflation.
But experts agree the employers’ flexibility and appropriate wages seem the only way out of the situation.