Brussels, 02/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - Further to the opening-up, on Sunday 1 May, of the German and Austrian employment market to workers from the eight countries of Eastern Europe which joined the EU in 2004, the German ministers Ursula von der Leyen (employment) and Wolfgang Schäuble (finance) have announced that checks on illegal workers and wage dumping are to be stepped up, AFP reports.
The checks have been particularly tightened up in the construction, building cleaning, medical care and food sectors, Ursula von der Leyen told an interview with the Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag. Wolfgang Schäuble announced the creation of a further 150 jobs for black-market worker inspectors in 2011, plus an additional 100 positions each for 2012 and 2013, AFP notes. Minister von der Leyen went on to state that she expected nearly 100,000 people to come to Germany from the eight countries of Eastern Europe in question, most of them “young, educated and mobile”, confirming the words of the director of the German research Institute IAB, Joachim Möller (EUROPE 10365)
The eight countries of Eastern Europe which joined the EU in 2004 are Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia (see EUROPE 10367). (G.B./transl.fl)