Polish Government Admits 30% Of Unemployed Don’t Want Work
Classified Polnews
Poland’s Minister of Labor says 30% of the unemployed do not want to work and that their files should be moved to a separate administrative unit. The Ministry would not spend time trying to help them to find work. They would simply continue to get benefits and the Ministry could spend more time helping those who want help.
Currently the unemployment offices spend a lot of time doing paperwork. Getting those who don’t want to work out of the system could reduce the paperwork load.
The goal of the Minister of Labor, Anna Kalata is to allow the unemployment offices concentrate on helping those people who actually want work. http://www.zw.com.pl/zw2/index.jsp?place=Lead04&&news_cat_id=16&news_id=146646&layout=1&forum_id=22709&page=text
Under the proposed change, those who refuse retraining or refuse job offers 2 or 3 times would be considered as not wanting to work. Their files would be essentially ignored.
Under the Polish law, after two years people are considered as permanently unemployed and they stop receiving unemployment benefits. But they continue to get free health insurance.
The system is very convenient for those who run their own unregistered businesses. And the new change will make it much easier for them.
As it is now, people who run unregistered businesses use the unemployment system to get free health insurance. To get it they have to visit the unemployment offices for two years. After that, things get easier because they become permanently unemployed and get their free health insurance without the burden of going to the unemployment office.
Under the proposal they can just refuse work a few times and eliminate the requirement to visit the offices.
The propose change helps both the Ministry of Labor Anna Kalata link and the system abusers.
According to Professor Mieczyslaw Kabaj of the Institute of Work And Social Policy, it is very difficult to separate those who want to work from those who do not. He says that the way to solve the problem is to add one million new jobs in the next four years.
With employers complaining of a labor shortage now, he does not explain how the addition of one million jobs will help solve the problem that employers are having. See Poland cannot grow without workers
