What is the Information Campaign for Seasonal Workers in the EU?
In order to raise awareness of EU citizens about their rights when performing seasonal work abroad in the EU, the European Labor Authority (ELA) has launched a special information campaign on this subject. The European Network of Employment Services – EURES across the EU also joined the campaign. The activities of the EURES network in Poland are carried out at the local, regional and national level.
Seasonal workers are exceptionally exposed to various types of abuse in connection with, for example:
- ignorance of foreign languages,
- labor law regulations,
- social security or occupational health and safety.
They are often unfamiliar with the appeal procedures in the country of employment. For this reason, they are reluctant to use them, also for fear of controls by local authorities. There are cases of unlawful employment of seasonal workers.
The period of the COVID-19 pandemic was exacerbated by the above-mentioned problems. Seasonal work in agriculture, horticulture, harvesting vegetables, flowers or other agricultural crops is often sanitary work, which increases the risk of contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The campaign aims to:
- indication of ways to look for safe seasonal work in the EU Member States,
- encouraging the use of EURES network services as a source of safe work and useful information on working conditions in the EU Member States,
- popularization of the provisions of labor and social security law and the need to apply them,
- indication of institutions, website addresses, organizations where support can be obtained,
- making people aware of the existence of EU and national legal provisions that regulate seasonal work and the rights and obligations of employees and employers – there is an obligation to comply with them in order to ensure safe and fair work for all,
- Communicate that mobile seasonal workers have a right to fair, safe working conditions, including the principle of safe distances and access to hygiene measures when working in another EU country, on an equal footing with local workers and on the basis of the same employment and social rights.
The target audience of the information campaign are: seasonal workers and employers who employ them.
In Poland, the EURES campaign is conducted by poviat and voivodeship labor offices and voivodeship headquarters of the Voluntary Labor Corps (VLC). The EURES campaign coordinator is the Labor Market Department at the Ministry of Development, Labor and Technology (coordination of the activities of labor offices and VLC).
The activities are national, regional and local and focus on information and communication activities for the Polish unemployed and jobseekers who are interested in seasonal work in the EU / EFTA Member States, mainly in the agri-food industry.
The information campaign is carried out by organizing information meetings, workshops, webinars, online meetings, advisory days, open days, developing articles, creating dedicated radio spots, publishing texts on the Internet – websites and portals, social media, preparing interviews, radio broadcasts, publications articles in regional and local press.
On the Internet, the information campaign on seasonal work in the EU can be observed under two hashtags:
# Rights4AllSeasons – the main hashtag of the information campaign
#EURESeasonalWorks – hashtag of activities within the EURES network information campaign.
Campaign schedule
- An information campaign on seasonal work in the EU is conducted from 15 June to October 2021 by the European Labor Office
- The EURES network joined the campaign on July 7, 2021.
- The Polish EURES network started its activities on July 19, 2021.
- On September 20-24, 2021, the so-called Week of Action. At that time, it is planned to intensify the events in Poland as part of the campaign.
The information campaign on seasonal work in the EU is financed from the own funds of the Ministry of Development, Labor and Technology, voivodeship and poviat labor offices and OHP units.
Projekt otrzymał dofinansowanie z Norwegii poprzez Fundusze Norweskie 2014-2021, w ramach programu „Dialog społeczny – godna praca”.
