Germany will ease restrictions on foreign doctors and engineers seeking work in the country in a bid to plug a yawning gap in the labour market of Europe's top economy, a minister said on Tuesday. Education and Research Minister Annette Schavan told the daily Passauer Neue Presse that the centre-right government would this week approve a draft law aimed at attracting thousands of professionals from abroad.
"We agree that the complicated rules of preference (stipulating that jobs must go to Germans first) for engineers as well as doctors must be eliminated," said Schavan, from Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats. "In future, it will no longer have to be proved that no applicant from Germany or the European Union could be found."
Currently employers seeking to hire foreign professionals must undergo a review by the local labour office to determine whether a German is available to fill the job. Schavan said Berlin would hack away at red tape for sectors in particular need of qualified employees and improve opportunities for foreigners already living in Germany. On Wednesday, government ministers will meet with employers and labour unions to hammer out the details of the plan.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.