According to him, there are currently enough unemployed residents in Lithuania who could do the same work as third-country nationals.
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“Unskilled labor from third countries is essentially a form of social dumping. Because we really have enough of our own citizens in Lithuania who are unemployed and could also work and perform those jobs, it’s just that employers want to increase profit margins, increase the numbers there, by paying lower wages to third-country nationals,” M. Katelynas said on Sunday in the LRT program “Panorama”.
Meanwhile, Social Security and Labor Minister Inga Ruginienė, not ruling out the possibility that a reduction in the quota for next year might be considered, the head of the International Transport Logistics Alliance Povilas Drižas says that it would be a blow not only to the sector but also to the state.
According to him, losing the opportunity to employ at least 5-6 thousand additional workers would cause the state to lose about 40 million euros in taxes.
“We have calculated that from those 80 thousand third-country nationals working in our sector, the State Tax Inspectorate and Social Security Fund receive over 700 million euros in taxes annually. So losing the opportunity now to employ at least an additional 5-6 thousand of those workers, we can calculate that the state would again lose about 40 million euros in taxes,” said P. Drižas.
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BNS wrote that after the Migration Department reported in July that the entire quota of 24.7 thousand foreigners to be employed in Lithuania this year has basically been used up, the Social Security and Labor Minister said in August to the portal “Verslo žinios” that there is no reason to increase it for next year and does not rule out that a reduction of the quota might be considered. According to I. Ruginienė, the quota of 24.7 thousand foreigners set this year is a “very rational and objective number”.
Meanwhile, the president of the Lithuanian Business Confederation (LVK), Andrius Romanovskis, said in mid-August that the current quotas need to be reviewed because “the system is flawed and some third-country nationals use the same quota twice”.
According to the Migration Department, after the quota is used up, a temporary residence permit in Lithuania on the basis of work can only be issued if the foreigner’s salary is at least 1.2 times the average monthly basic wage in the country (currently – 2893 euros “on paper”), or when the profession is included in the list of high value-added professions that are in shortage in Lithuania – not less than the average monthly basic wage (currently – 2411.4 euros).
