Last week, Volvo announced that they would hire Roma workers in their factory in Slovakia. This article is pretty much saying, that this is total hogwash, that Roma are de facto unqualified, and anyhow, they want too much money.
Not really good …
The Volvo car company is interested in employing Slovak Roma in its factory. This was stated by the Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, Erik Tomáš, on Wednesday after the government meeting in the east of Slovakia. “They put emphasis on it and we will do everything to make it happen,” he added.
They are planning almost five thousand jobs.
The Slovak Entrepreneur of the Year Adele Vincze explains her approach to employing Roma.
The Whirlpool factory employs 500 Roma in Spiš, Slovakia out of a total of 1’500 employees. It is the key for Slovakia, advises the American Chamber of Commerce. Instead of looking for foreign workforce, Whirlpool looked at the Roma community.
Good!
The coalition “Vocea Romilor” (Voice of the Roma) believes that the National Employment Agency should launch a program to simplify the access of Roma to the labour market by organizing a labour exchange at the local level. In addition, national and local programs are needed to prepare young Roma for work in administration and government institutions. The recommendation was made in the context of the presentation of monitoring reports of the Roma Support Program for 2022-2025 in the employment chapter.
On the occasion of International Youth Day, which was declared by the United Nations on August 12 in 1999, Združenje Epeka, a social enterprise from Maribor, on the island of Maribor prepared, as they called it, an event entitled Green knowledge for young people: on the way to sustainable world.
The event was attended by around thirty people, including Roma and refugee teenagers from Syria.
A video on Roma and work. It cites Jan Hero, the plenipotentiary of the Slovak Government for Roma, who says that the society has not made great progress in employing Roma. But is also says that “some Roma simply do not want to work”.
Bad.
The topic of employing disadvantaged applicants on the labour market is more and more a hot topic in Slovakia. According to the Association for Culture, Education and Communication, the finalists of the Roma Spirit award are a real proof of effectiveness in the inclusion in the employment of low-qualified persons. In this context, the government representative for Roma communities, Ján Hero, stated that the percentage of employed people from marginalized Roma communities is growing only very slowly, but the situation is improving. While meeting employers awarded within the framework of Roma Spirit, which took place this week in Poprad this week, Jan Hero stated:
“With segregation and non-inclusive approaches, the concentration of poverty multiplies, and it is very difficult to get out of that situation. We have experience that Roma people also get jobs outside their homes, but they often do not have a permanent job and thus even better housing is more inaccessible for them.”
An initiative called “Open day” whose goal is to introduce young Roma to potential employers, so that they can learn more about different occupations and motivate themselves to continue their education and choose an adequate profession. “Open door day” is implemented within the project “Promoting the employability of young Roma men and women – phase II”. The mentioned project is supported through the program of German financial cooperation, which is implemented by the German development bank KfW on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Germany – the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
There is a shortage of workers in Slovakia, while there are people who urgently need regular work, according to an article published last week by the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. The integration of Roma would solve part of the problems of the Slovak labour market as there are around 500,000 Roma in Slovakia.
According to the statistics of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, in 2021 only 33% of Roma in Slovakia had a paid job, while 60% of young Roma between the ages of 16 and 24 were not looking for work, were not in education, or were part of any training program . “Humanly it is a drama, economically it is a burden for Slovakia,” writes the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in an article entitled Roma – a recognized workforce in Europe.
In Slovakia, as in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, there is a shortage of labour force, which will probably ease in the coming months due to the current negative economic development, but this problem is structural.
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