The government and institutional actors are trying two ways to reach a solution to the pressing problem of the lack of land workers, while at the same time ambiguous decisions of the EFKA come to disturb the waters surrounding the management of the project.
Second thoughts on papers for foreign land workers, IKA instead of a stamp
After the Government folded in on the issue of legalizing the 300,000 illegal immigrants, efforts to find the necessary workforce were again in the air, with the debate now focusing on two possibilities, which have reached the office of the responsible Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgos Gerapetritis. In the last few hours, several meetings have been held and have been scheduled with the following subjects:
- The acceleration of interstate agreements, with a core memorandum of cooperation with Vietnam, a country that ETHEAS has been eyeing for the last few months.
- Second thoughts of government officials regarding the possibility of legalizing a compromising number of irregularities.
“Let it not be 300,000, let it be 30,000 people who already have previous experience in estates and fields in Greece” commented to Agrenda a person who closely follows the processes surrounding this hot issue.
So it seems the government is having second thoughts about legalizing illegal immigrants, with the recommendations it accepts wanting a reduction in the total number of people who could get papers, in order to head off any backlash in the inner-party camp, especially now that the last electoral anxieties were removed.
At the same time, the whole process becomes even more difficult, especially for more organized units of plant and animal production, since ambiguous decisions of EFKA facilitate new…adventures in the already exhausting field of employment of land workers. The EFKA circular dated March 31, 2023, with instructions for the inclusion in the insurance of the e-EFKA – former OGA of land workers, comes to tighten the trades of labor, with the interpretation of the decision showing the way of insurance in the IKA of land workers that are employed in livestock units, nurseries and agricultural holdings with the legal form of S.A. In practice, this means that where a land worker used to cost around 40 euros with the labor to the professionals in the field, now it will cost 70 euros for the employee to get the same money for his work.
It is essentially a doubling of employment costs at a time when wages, in the absence of enough workers, have skyrocketed, with the implementation of the decision being able to blow up the competitiveness of several of the farms.
Source : www.agronews.gr
