BUCHAREST, OCTOBER 2008
A MILLION GOOD WORKERS NEEDED
While much of the world is facing recession and jobs are being lost, one European country is in desperate need of hundreds of thousands of workers. Since Romania joined the European Union in 2007 more than two million people have left to earn higher wages in wealthier European countries. One of the hardest hit industries is construction which has lost about half a million skilled workers.
The voice of Pierro Francisci rose above the clatter of drilling on
the floor of the construction site far below. Carved deep into the ground
of a Bucharest suburb was the vast foundation chamber of what should
eventually become a high-rise office block.
It should also have been crawling with about a hundred construction
workers. Instead there was just a cluster of men carving out the elevator
shaft which at present looked like a prehistoric insect, with twisted
brown metal girders rising out of the grey half-built concrete blocks.
"Has anybody actually sat down and worked out how many people
are needed to build the infrastructure of this country?" said Mr
Francisci, gesticulating in frustration. "It needs motorways, bridges,
airports, railways, and look at this."
Mr Francisci is an Italian businessman with plans to build houses and
office blocks throughout Romania - if he can find anyone to do it. His
guest at the building site was Adriana Eftime, the head of a building
trade federation. Her luckless task is to try to persuade the government
to issue thousands of entry permits to foreigners on the grounds that
hundreds of thousands of Romanian constructions workers have left the
country for better wages elsewhere in Europe. So far she's failing.
"I asked them just for 60,000," she explained, "but
they wouldn't have it. They said they'd look maybe at 10,000."
"Well, all I can say," said Mr Francisci, "is that if
things keep going this way, we'll have to close down."
He took us down a rickety wooden ladder to the floor. We walked across
to where the work was going on and he introduced us to Rajinder Singh
Bansal, a carpenter from Delhi - one of a half a dozen Indians who had
been allowed in. But Rajinder said he might have to leave when their
permits run out and go back to a job in India that paid a fraction of
the wages. Mr Francisci had lists of applicants from India, Vietnam
and the Philippines whom he wanted to sponsor, but the government wasn't
letting him.
"It's the European Union," he complained. "Without papers,
without money, without any job, anyone can just leave for Italy, France,
Germany and we are left with no-one because no-one wants to come from
those rich countries to work here. So we need to bring them in from
the poorer countries, and we're not allowed to."
Romania's conundrum lies at the heart of how a developing country,
with much of its infrastructure broken down, should modernise. China,
for example, that's routinely building airports, rail links and motorways,
has a vast workforce of its own to call upon. Dubai, that glittering
economic engine of the Gulf, imports so many workers that they make
up more than 80 per cent of the entire population.
Romania, it seems, doesn't quite know what to do. Since joining the
European Union in 2007, more than two million people - or ten per cent
of the whole population - have left for richer parts of Europe.
Meanwhile, just about everything needs fixing. You don't have to go
far to see dirt tracks and donkey carts. Three million buildings need
to be renovated to make them secure against earthquakes. The ring road
carrying huge articulated trucks is no wider than a two lane country
road in places.
There are only about 200 miles of motorway, and half of that was built
during Communist times - just as the massive palatial parliament complex
- apparently the biggest government building in the world - was put
up in a just a few years by the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. But those
were Cold War days and he had no problems in getting builders.
Government officials say privately that they don’t want to flood Romania
with foreign workers because it may lead to race problems. The public
position is that it wants to attract back those workers who have left.
But it's not only the modernisation of a nation that’s suffering. Vlad
Radu, an engineer, asked me up to his family's apartment in the early
evening -just as the washing machine was beginning a cycle.
After a few minutes, white foam bubbled out of the drain in the bathroom,
seeping across the floor like a creature in a horror movie. Everytime
the washing machine is on, either Vlad or Claudia his wife, has to keep
watch to ensure the apartment doesn't flood.
"Back in the old days," said Vlad, "We would just call
the building maintenance department and someone would fix it. But this
problem has been with us now for three years. We've tried everything."
So as the financial crisis brings unemployment, for European Union
citizens at least, there are vacancies in Romania - plumbers, of course,
and jobs for some half a million construction workers.