Brno - Officially, the Czech Republic has 1,800 agencies mediating jobs for thousands of foreigners employed by Czech companies. But more than 1,300 agencies licensed by Czech authorities do not disclose the number of workers they have brought in.
The agencies ignore the fact that failure to report the required data may result in a fine of up to CZK 500,000. The Labor and Social Affairs Ministry has already launched administrative proceedings against some of them.
Agencies declining to specify how many people they have employed highlights the chaos in this field, which unions say costs the government billions of crowns.
Agencies have mediated jobs for more than 250,000 people, mostly from abroad. Some of them operate without a license: Agencies without a Czech or Vietnamese license have allegedly brought in thousands of workers from Vietnam. Others import workers from abroad and then shut down as their representatives disappear.
"We wanted to work with an agency on worker imports from Vietnam, but their conditions were so shameless that we decided to arrange everything without an intermediary," said the owner of a smaller engineering company based in southern Moravia.
Another problem is that workers hired through agencies often live in unsatisfactory conditions. On the other hand, the agencies earn big money: They charge companies over CZK 200 per hour of work, but the workers receive less than CZK 100 per hour.
Tighter oversight?
Unions have strongly criticised the labour agency market. They say the government is losing billions of crowns.
"Tax evasion from agency jobs may reach CZK 5-10 billion a year. But this is only a gross estimate calculated on the basis of data from HR agencies," said Josef Středula, chairman of the KOVO union.
Unionists also point out that workers hired through agencies often earn much less than regular employees for the same amount of work.
To combat the situation, the government has promised stricter oversight. The best-known case in which the state has sanctioned an agency is the employment of Polish workers at Škoda Auto.
The labor inspectorate fined the Zetka Auto agency CZK 500,000 for a breach of labor regulations, but only after ombudsman Otakar Motejl stepped in.
Controllers complain about limited powers, saying they cannot even enter workers' dormitories.
The Chamber of Commerce is planning to create a special guarantee fund to improve the conditions of foreign workers, without whom local companies could not exist. The fund, to be supported by contributions from local employers, should serve thousands of workers from Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, China, and Mongolia, according to Hospodářské noviny.
Adapted and republished by Tomáš Fránek @ the Prague Daily Monitor
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