When employing foreigners from third countries, Slovakia is interested in finding workers for professions for which it cannot find employees on the domestic labour market, but the government's priority remains to employ Slovaks first of all, Labour Minister Erik Tomas (Hlas-SD) said following the government session on Wednesday.
At the session, the cabinet passed an amendment to the Act on the Residence of Foreigners, which, in combination with an amendment to the Employment Services Act, is meant to facilitate the access of workers from third countries to the Slovak labour market.
Tomas at the same time noted that his ministry is launching several programmes to help the unemployed. According to the minister, even though the unemployment rate has been reaching historic lows recently, there are still some 140,000 unemployed individuals, half of whom are long-term unemployed.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Hlas-SD) said that the amendment to the Act on the Residence of Foreigners is designed to notably reduce time limits concerning the recruitment of foreign workers.
(TASR)
