North Cork firms turn to Poland for staff
‘NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE TO GET STAFF’ LOCALLY SO 40 ‘IMPORTED’
EMPLOYERS who work in the steel industry in Duhallow are finding it next to impossible to source staff locally or, indeed, in Ireland. Instead, they have joined forces and secured the services of a Polish employment agency to bridge the gap.
This was the scenario outlined by Cllr Gerard Murphy (FG) at the Kanturk Mallow Municipal District meeting on Friday. Cllr Murphy was speaking on the plunging unemployment rates throughout North Cork and went on to point out that employers nowadays “just cannot get workers”.
“I am aware of employers who work in the steel industry and they all joined up and turned to an employment agency in Poland to get 40 staff in” he said.
EMPLOYERS who work in the steel industry in Duhallow are finding it next to impossible to get staff locally and instead joined forces to attain the services of a Polish employment agency to bridge that gap.
That was the scenario outlined by Cllr Gerard Murphy (FG) at the Kanturk Mallow municipal district meeting this week.
He was speaking on the plunging unemployment rates throughout North Cork and said that local employers “just cannot get workers.”
“I am aware of employers who work in the steel industry and they all joined up and turned to an employment agency in Poland to get 40 staff in” he said.
He was speaking on the effectiveness of Community Employment (CE) schemes in the Duhallow region but it was now at stage where it was “next to impossible” to get staff due to the falling unemployment rates.
The ethos of the CE programme is designed to help people who are long term unemployed and other disadvantaged people to get back to work by offering part-time and temporary placements in jobs based within local communities.
Regarding the plunging unemployment rates in Duhallow, on the CSO website there are 151 less people on the Live Register in Newmarket since last year, which represents a 20% reduction in one year.
Figures from the most recent CSO Live Register statistics in the area there is a total of 328 males on the register in Duhallow. There are 19 males under 25 years and aged 25 years and over there are 309.
For females aged under 25 there are just 19 on the Live Register and aged 25 and over it is 273, which gives a combined total of 292.
In Mallow, there is a 12% reduction and in Macroom there is a 10% reduction in the live register over the last year.
It was the view of Cllr Murphy that “every effort must be made” to encourage people to go on the available schemes.
Chairing the meeting, Cllr Gearoid Murphy (FF) said he completely agreed with Cllr Murphy’s stance.
However, Cllr Timmy Collins (Ind) said that there has been “cuts made to Fas and cuts made to CE schemes.” Cllr Murphy said he is also aware of vacancies on schemes in both Newmarket and in Kiskeam on Tus schemes.
“It isn’t a question that there isn’t vacancies – there is but these just need to be filled,” he said.
Cllr Bernard Moynihan (FF) said that there are “plenty of students” who are doing courses such as Civil Engineering and construction in CIT and they should look towards the colleagues to get workers for the summer months.