Since Estonia has stricter rules for recruiting foreign labor from third countries than neighboring countries, the transport sector has begun to use temporary labor from Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. As a last resort, he even opens separate companies there, writes Delfi Ärileht. Estonian transport companies have not hidden for a long time that difficult times have come in their sector. Last fall, the largest companies admitted to Äripäev, which compiled the next annual rating of trucking companies, that “sideline” companies help them stay afloat and pay their employees. We were talking about the economic results of 2022. The problem of staffing is becoming increasingly acute, especially in the field of hiring foreign workers, where the industry, suffering from a growing labor shortage, sees the only option. Due to local restrictions, the same drivers began to be hired through Latvian, Lithuanian or Polish companies. “During the coronavirus crisis, exceptions were made for Belarusian and Russian drivers, but today this employee [from a third country] becomes so expensive that it does not pay off,” says Alar Parv (52), head of the Alpter Group, which has been operating since 1997 and before the war in Ukraine, it provided work for drivers from Belarus, Russia and Uzbekistan. In addition to the ban on hiring Russian and Belarusian citizens from the end of 2022, hiring labor from third countries is also limited by the fact that they are issued a work permit for only one year, in accordance with Estonian short-term employment rules.
