One of the Good Practice Awards was presented to the Polish National Labour Inspectorate for the good practice the ‘National Labour Inspectorate (NLI) communication activities and advice for refugees from Ukraine taking up work in Poland’. It was launched to improve the possibilities of Ukrainian refugees in Poland to engage in lawful employment and reduce the risk of exploitation and abuse at work with various information sources.
The military aggression against Ukraine and the arrival of high numbers of Ukrainian refugees in Poland fleeing the Russian aggression, inspired the Polish Labour Inspectorate to start their initiative. It was extremely relevant to take action to help the more than 7.5 million Ukrainian refugees who had fled to Poland, thereof over 1.5 million registering for protection. Many of those who cross the border stay for an unforeseeable period of time and are interested in taking up work. But, refugees may be at particular risk of labour exploitation for instance via entering an unlawful work relationship.
To tackle these issues, the State Labour Inspectorate, together with its 16 District Labour Inspectorates started to carry out information activities for Ukrainian refugees. Their intention was to ensure that the refugees obtain the basic knowledge of the Polish labour law and become more aware of the risks in labour relations. They did so by approaching Ukrainians already at the border crossing as well as by visiting temporary accommodation facilities. The Inspectorate officials were informing the refugees about the basic conditions regarding the employment relations and basic labour rights. Like that they contributed to their chances of finding lawful employment.
The relevant information and sources were distributed at dedicated meetings, sessions and information points. They also developed bilingual communication materials such as leaflets, brochures and roll-ups. To reach more people, the inspectorate used an educational video shared also with local media, institutions and associations helping Ukrainians, and the video is still available on YouTube. The National Labour Inspectorate website offers videos with advice (with subtitles in Ukrainian) as well as materials in Ukrainian on the rules for working in Poland and provides answers to the most frequent questions. To help both employers and refugees, the website also offers practical tools such as Polish-Ukrainian forms for employment contracts and bilingual information on the terms of employment.
This practice was based on a wider strategy which the National Labour Inspectorate developed in response to the increasing arrival of Ukrainian refugees to Poland (‘Strategy of the National Labour Inspectorate operations in the situation of increased inflow of foreigners to the territory of Poland following the war in Ukraine’). These activities could be easily transferred to other countries with high numbers of (Ukrainian) refugees and the details 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.
