Good Practice Award presented to EURES Slovakia for 'Cooperation in seasonal employment between Slovakia and the Netherlands'

The cooperation between EURES Slovakia and EURES Netherlands started in 2018 and is beneficial for both Slovakian jobseekers and Dutch employers. The aim of the collaboration is to assist the recruitment of Slovak seasonal jobseekers in the Netherlands in the agricultural sector during summer months. Thanks to the cooperation, EURES Slovakia now has the opportunity to offer good-quality seasonal vacancies in the Netherlands. The EURES Slovakia is now also able provide assistance to Slovak jobseekers interested in taking a seasonal job in the Netherlands. Since the cooperation started, EURES Slovakia has collected more than 700 CVs from Slovak jobseekers. At least 41 of the applicants were eventually employed in the Netherlands.

The cooperation started with a study visit at several employers’ premises in the Netherlands. Since then, every year, EURES Netherlands receives vacancies through LTO 3 Arbeidskracht, the Dutch organisation of employers in the agricultural and horticultural sectors. After verifying that the working conditions are in line with the law, EURES Netherlands publishes the vacancies on the EURES portal. EURES Slovakia then translates the vacancies into Slovak and promotes them on the national portal and through EURES Slovakia’s social media channels. EURES Slovakia collects jobseekers’ applications, checks if they match the conditions of the vacancy and offers additional support if needed. Once the applications are reviewed, EURES Slovakia sends them to the employers in the Netherlands. The employers get in contact directly with the selected candidates and agree with them on the potential employment contract.

EURES Slovakia and EURES Netherlands have regular online meetings to discuss how the cooperation is going, review the number of vacancies sent and the number of CVs received.

This good practice can be easily implemented by countries with similar demands in seasonal work and the details of the collaboration are available here.

The Call for Good Practices is a recurring initiative first launched by ELA in June 2022. The purpose of the Call is to exchange, disseminate and uptake good practices and knowledge collected by Member States and other stakeholders that operate at the national, regional or local level, including social security institutions, civil society and social partner organisations. Each annual Call has a specified deadline for submission of good practices. Each year there is a different set of priorities.

The findings from the calls are anticipated to contribute to the effective application and enforcement of EU labour mobility law within the EU, by encouraging good practice exchange, and their potential further application by Member States.