More than 300 skilled industrial workers are now needed in Prague, at least for the next three months.
Applicants are not required to have college degrees. They just need to have basic knowledge in electronics, information technology, or other related technical jobs.
With a labor crisis still gripping the Czech Republic, there is now a huge demand for Filipino workers.
Prague is looking to hire 1,000 Filipinos by the end of 2018.
Priority is given to highly-skilled industrial or factory workers, especially those engaged in jobs in electronics, automotive, and manufacturing.
The demand for more Filipino workers was discussed during the roundtable business forum sponsored by Prague’s Ministry of Industry and Trade.
In that forum, Czech officials and employers were introduced to leading Philippine products and industries.
For the first time, Trade Undersecretary Rowel Barba reported a favorable trade balance between the Philippines and Czech Republic.
And the trade upswing for the Philippines may improve further as more Czech employers have expressed the desire to hire Filipino workers.
“Ito hong pagpadala ng mga Pilipino ay sasaloob ho sa isang framework na protektado ang mga rights ng mga workers kahit ho mga Pilipino, at mayroon pong minimum pay,” Barba said.
“We have very good reputation. We are known to be hardworking, generous, cheerful, masayahin ang mga Pilipino, masipag at maganda reputasyon dito,” charge d'affaires Jed Dayang said.
Upon hiring, workers do not have to pay any placement fee. The package includes free airfare, accommodation, food, and transportation allowance.
More importantly, they are given health insurance coverage.
With the big demand for Filipino workers, the Czech government is ready to augment manpower at its embassy in Manila.
“The decision has been made to recently upgrade the resources allocated to the visa handling situation so that the bottleneck at this moment will be rid off, and we can have up to a thousand people by the end of this year,” said Vladan Raz, a Czech recruiter.
Vladan is the leading recruiter of Filipino workers employed at the Teleplan Electronics plant.
ABS-CBN News visited the plant where some 156 Filipino workers, including a highly-skilled engineer, is employed.
Engineer Sigrid Castillo has been with the plant for 10 years. She and many of the workers have brought their families with them.
They have opted to apply to become permanent residents of Czech Republic.
“Hindi ako tatagal ng 10 years if I didn’t enjoy the benefits from the company, and also the place is very nice, the weather, the transportation and also the people,” Castillo said.
“So for those people that have been here for more than 5 years, we started to provide them Czech lessons for free because part of the exams is Czech language,” said Petr Pesek, human relations manager at Teleplan.
Apart from factory workers, Dayang said there is also a demand for workers in the health and IT sectors.