17% say that their desire to experience new things was their main motivation for coming.

Transcription

1 /2 6XPPDWLRQ The survey is based on a sample of 500 Polish workers in the Greater Copenhagen Area. Due to the applied respondent driven sampling method and the relatively large group of interviewees, the results of the survey are representative for the total group of Polish workers in Greater Copenhagen. 7KH3ROHVLQ*UHDWHU&RSHQKDJHQ The group of Polish workers in Greater Copenhagen is a diversified group. A prevalent image of the prototype of a Polish worker is a single young man working in building and construction. This image is nuanced by the survey which shows that there are many other scenarios. First of all, there are more women among the Polish workers than the official registers show. At the time of the survey, 45% of the Polish workers in Greater Copenhagen were women. Furthermore, many of the Polish workers who have arrived are living as couples. This is true for 44% of the Polish workers living in Greater Copenhagen. In addition, 15% of the Poles have brought their children with them to Denmark and another 10% are planning to do so in the near future. As for education and training, the Polish workers in Greater Copenhagen have a great variety of qualifications, but they are, generally, more well educated than the average worker in Poland; As many as 32% of the Polish workers in Denmark have higher education. When looking at the group of Polish workers in Greater Copenhagen, it is apparent that young workers are overrepresented: 53% of the Poles are years old. In geographical terms, they come from all parts of Poland, with an overrepresentation of Poles from the Northern regions. 0LJUDWLRQWR'HQPDUN The socio-economic differences between Poland and Denmark have strongly influenced the motivation of the Polish workers to come to Denmark. According to the interviewees, the average hourly wage they would receive in Poland corresponds to DKK 24 and only 54% of the Poles had full-time work immediately before coming to Denmark. However, the majority of these Polish workers were not poverty-stricken nor did they have problems paying their living expenses when living in Poland. They simply wanted to improve their economic situation by working in Denmark. 59% of the interviewees state this as their main reason for coming to Denmark while another

2 17% say that their desire to experience new things was their main motivation for coming. Social networks play an important role in the migration process of the Polish workers. Their networks also influence which jobs they end up in when coming to Denmark. Only a very few Poles have been recruited directly by a Danish employer. Instead, friends and family have played an important role in defining their pattern of movement and employment. The Polish workers generally appear to be a very mobile group. As many as 45% have already worked in a foreign country before coming to Denmark. There are, however, variations to these percentages when comparing the different industries. Building and construction workers are thus the most mobile workers. According to the survey, the Polish workers are more often permanent residents in Denmark than circular migrants travelling back and forth. As many as 72% of the Polish workers in Greater Copenhagen state that they are residing in Denmark and rarely go back to Poland. The travel pattern of the Poles also seems to be adjusted to the Danish holidays since many of these workers only leave Denmark during the preferred national holiday periods. The composition of the group of Polish migrants has changed over time. Whereas, after the EU-enlargement, there was an overweight of men and a majority who had already found work before coming to Denmark, the group of workers has now changed so that it is characterized by a more equal gender distribution and by a growing share of workers without prior employment prospects. 5HVLGHQFHULJKWVWD[HVDQGWKHLQIRUPDOODERXUPDUNHW In connection with the transitional scheme for the new member countries, a lot of focus has been brought to the basis for residence of the Eastern European workers - especially whether or not they have a work- and residence permit. Only 56% of the Polish workers in Greater Copenhagen have applied for work- and residence permits. Nevertheless, only 7% lack a legal basis for residence. This is due to the fact that many of the workers who do not have work- and residence permits have other residence rights. They may have been granted a permanent resident status, they may

3 be posted workers or they may have been employed after May 2008 in a company which is covered by a collective agreement. Following the revision of the Danish East Agreement in May 2008, more emphasis has been placed on whether or not the new EU-citizens have an EU Registration Certificate. Only 6% of the Polish workers confirm having an EU Registration Certificate even though it is obligatory after three months residence in Denmark (six months for job seekers). Even though this percentage is low, all Polish workers cannot be expected to have a Registration Certificate. Some have been outside Denmark with in the last three months and are therefore not obligated to have acquired the certificate yet, while others continue to have a work- and residence permit. However, the limited number of Polish migrant workers with an EU Registration Certificate indicates that there are potential problems incurred in connection with the continuous monitoring of the number of workers from other EUcountries in Denmark. This monitoring is, amongst others, based on EU Registration Certificates. It seems to indicate that the continuous monitoring might give an incorrect indication of the number of EU-workers who are resident in Denmark. Some of the reasons why many Polish migrant workers do not have a registration certificate could be a general lack of incentives and information on the issue and because of the fact that there is a requirement to appear in person to receive the certificate. In spite of the lacking EU Registration Certificate, the Poles cannot necessarily be categorised as belonging to the informal labour market. Many of them have a standard employment contract, pay taxes and even have a Danish CPR-number. However, 12% of the Polish workers do, to a certain extent, reside and work in the informal sector. They will often be self-employed without properly registered companies, posted workers without employment contracts and workers whose wages are not taxed which is often the case among construction workers and domestic workers. According to the survey, very few Polish workers make use of the possibilities for tax deduction. This may either be due to the fact that the Polish workers are unfamiliar with the tax regulation in Denmark or that they do not meet the requirements necessary to obtain deductions separation allowance, for instance.

4 :DJHVDQGZRUNLQJFRQGLWLRQVIRU3ROLVKZRUNHUVLQ'HQPDUN Comparing wages, work hours and health & safety conditions with the average Danish worker, it is clear that the Poles have poorer working conditions than the average Danish worker. This cannot be explained by differences in educational level. However, it can be explained by the types of jobs held by the Polish workers. Jobs that are often low-paid and where the working hours and health & safety conditions are relatively poor. These jobs are typically less appealing to Danish workers and therefore easier for the Polish workers to get. Overall, it is possible to differentiate between three main types of jobs held by Polish workers: The first type of jobs is characterized by low wages, requirements for flexible work hours and a lack of development and use of qualifications. These conditions also apply for Danish workers in similar jobs. 14% of the Poles are thus newspaper carriers, 30% work with cleaning, and 14% work as manual labour in factories and storage facilities. These are the so-called poor jobs in which working conditions are almost equally poor for Danish and Polish workers. The second type of jobs involves a very small group of Poles (15%) who find themselves in a broad category consisting of so-called better jobs. These jobs all require a certain level of education. These jobs can be anything from receptionists to nurses or engineers. The survey points to the fact that the Polish workers in these socalled better jobs generally have poorer working conditions than their Danish colleagues in similar positions - both when it comes to wages and co-determination. Finally, there is a third group of Polish workers (27%) who are employed in the building & construction industry. Here, they receive a noticeably lower wage than their Danish colleagues. However, they have greater chances of using their qualifications. The building & construction industry is where the Polish migrant workers are most content with their working conditions. At the same time, this is also where the greatest wage differences between Danes and Poles can be found. $OHVVDWWUDFWLYHODERXUPDUNHWIRUWKH3ROLVKZRUNHUV In addition to the differences in job types, the gender distribution on the Danish labour market and the types of jobs are some of the primary factors that influence the

5 Polish workers wage- and working conditions. The survey shows how the Polish workers are distributed according to types of employment: 6 % are self-employed, 19 % are posted workers 12 % are temporary workers 63 % are employees in a Danish company The self-employed Poles have the best wage- and working conditions - by any standard - and are also more satisfied with their work than the other groups although many of them are working in the informal sector. Apart from the relatively small group of self-employed workers, Polish workers who are employed in Danish companies obtain the best wages and working conditions. Most of the problems abound among temporary workers and posted workers. There are, meanwhile, different problems that characterise the two groups. Among the temporary workers, the main problem is to get enough working hours and to get to use their qualifications. 57% of the temporary workers state that they have too few hours and 91% do not feel that they are able to make full use of their qualifications. Among the posted workers, the problem is that their pay is relatively low and that their working hours are too long. Their average hourly pay is about DKK 103 and 22% of the posted workers feel that they work too many hours. The survey also indicates that some of the Poles have had a number of very negative experiences on the Danish labour market. 38% of the Polish workers in the Greater Copenhagen area have thus experienced not to get paid for their work, 32% have been threatened to get fired and 17% have been subjected to threats of violence at the workplace. If you compare the Poles assessment of their Danish workplace and the one they had in Poland, there are no major differences. It is, however, clear that they are more able to provide for themselves and their families in a Danish job but get to use their qualifications less than they would have in Poland. 7KH3ROHVDQGWKH'DQLVKPRGHO

6 The survey shows that the Poles get better wages and working conditions over time. This might, partly, be due to job changes. 50% of the Polish workers in Greater Copenhagen have changed jobs at least once while staying in Denmark and some of them get better working conditions as a result of these job changes. Meanwhile, the Poles are not necessarily in a very fortunate position when it comes to income and job security. Only 10% are members of an unemployment insurance fund. None of them have received social security. Only a few get continuing training compared to their Danish colleagues and a large group of the Poles have close to no Danish networks to help them find a new job. Many Poles thus plan to change jobs within the next few years but most of them also predict that it will be hard for them to find a new job in Denmark. The Polish workers know very little of the Danish labour market model; Almost half of them don t know if their work is covered by a collective agreement. Close to three out of four have never been in contact with a Danish trade union and only 11% of the Poles in Greater Copenhagen are members of a Danish trade union. Meanwhile, the Poles are mostly positive towards Danish trade unions and as many a 63% of them believe that they would have had fewer problems in Denmark if they had been members of a trade union. The survey also shows that collective agreement coverage, trade union membership and the presence of shop stewards help ensure better wages and more normal work hours for the Polish workers. Meanwhile, it also shows that the Polish workers assess their possibilities for making use of their own qualifications, of taking work-related initiatives, of getting influence on the tasks they perform and their influence on a fair distribution of the workload significantly more negatively if they have a shop steward at the workplace. This may be due to the fact that Polish workers at workplaces with shop stewards become more aware of these problems, but it may also be due to the fact that the shop stewards that represent them are inadequately qualified for or disinclined to fight for the Polish workers working conditions that go beyond the collective agreements. 6RFLDOLQWHJUDWLRQDQGZHOIDUHLQWHJUDWLRQ Only 16% of the Poles save up during their stay in Denmark. This shows that only a small group among these workers can be defined as actual target earners. At the same time, one in four Polish workers plan to stay on in Denmark permanently. This may, of course, change over time. However, the relatively large group of Poles

7 planning to stay on in Denmark pushes up the agenda of general integration issues regarding the Poles that reside in Denmark. First of all, it can be ascertained that the social lives of the Polish workers reach beyond their workplaces. Many of them participate in different leisure activities in Denmark and use their networks for finding a place to live. However, these networks are mainly Polish. This means that they may become isolated from the Danes and this might have the effect that, in the long term, this group of people will have difficulties becoming integrated into the Danish civil society. Secondly, far from all the legal Polish residents in Denmark receive social benefits - such as child benefit - even though they are so entitled according to EU-regulation. If the aim is to integrate the Polish workers fully into the Danish society and give them equal access to welfare benefits in accordance with EUregulation, there is - both in the long and in the short term - a need for more and better information for the new workers coming to Denmark. - Not just information on labour market- and collective agreement conditions, but also information on housing and welfare rights.