Poland welcomes foreign fruit pickers

Poland is making it easier for workers from Eastern Europe and Turkey to get certain jobs in Poland. Many of those jobs have been left by the large number of Poles who've gone to work in Western Europe for more money.

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Poland has had an unemployment rate of 15.7%; one of the highest in the European Union. More than one million Poles have left to work in Western Europe since Poland became an EU member in 2004. This includes an estimated 400,000 in Britain, where wages are much higher.

The directive was signed by the Polish Labour Ministry on Wednesday and is aimed especially at the fruit-picking sector. The relaxation also covers foreign language teachers, business executives, media correspondents, researchers and employees transferred to Poland by their companies, who will not need to apply for work permits. Turkish citizens who have lived in Poland for at least five years and have legally worked there for four years will no longer have to renew their work permits.

Listen to the words

directive
an official instruction, order, ruling

work permits
documents which make it legal for people to work in another country

seasonal jobs
jobs which are only done during a certain time of the year

relaxed
made less strict

an unemployment rate
a figure which shows how many people are out of work

wages
money that's paid for the number of hours worked in a week

the fruit-picking sector
the group of people who pick the fruit on farms for farmers to sell

foreign language teachers
people who teach languages other than Polish

media correspondents
people who send news reports about Poland to other countries

to apply for
to offfically ask for

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