Disappointment of construction employers: “We teach them a job and leave elsewhere, and for 100 lei”

To find the right employee and to be more loyal has become almost an unattainable goal, the employers in the field of construction are complained, who say that the biggest problem is no longer the lack of qualification, but the extreme fluctuation.

The problem of the labor force in the field of construction seems to be not even solved with the import of workers from non-EU countries. Employers manage to find contracts, they can work on tens, hundreds or even thousands of workers, depending on the size of the company, but it is difficult to find them and especially to keep them in the company. At least this explained several employers in the field of construction, in Olt county, who participated, on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at a meeting in which the opportunity of training, for free, of 600 people, being level 2 qualification courses (in the asphalting and paving), level 3, level 3, or non-trainers, informational, green economy). The courses are funded from European money, the Association of Young Managers and the Initiative Association for Inter -Community Cooperation and Development (ICDI) being the two entities that seek, through employers, employees interested in obtaining a qualification. There is no age limit, being eligible employees in the field of construction at the active age (between 18 and 65).

The need for qualification in the market is instead a real one, say the employers, few being in the happy situation in which the proportion of qualified employees versus unqualified to approach half-less, because most have to deal with people without any qualification. But this is not even the biggest problem, say the representatives of the builders, but the fact that the fluctuation of the labor is very high. Basically, you have hired a person today, but you can expect that tomorrow you will not come to work.

The pressure of winning auction could increase the percentage of qualifications

The need for qualified personnel, one that has become obvious that at present it cannot be satisfied by the vocational education system, can be solved in part by qualifying workers at work. Beyond the fact that in the game is the quality of the works performed, it becomes more and more the need to have staff with a qualification diploma to reach these contracts, because at the auctions the scores increase when the builders prove that they have qualified personnel.

Construction workers are increasingly difficult to find photo: Pixabay

“The qualification of people is a very important aspect. It is essential right at the moment, because they are already bigger requirements in auctions to be the qualified staff. I believe that a construction company that has 80% of unskilled staff has nothing to look for in these auctions. We are aware that most people who work on the site do not have the diploma but they know how to do what they do, only that it would be much more to get this qualification. And for me, as an engineer, it is much better to be able to speak in technical terms ”, explained Antonio Neacșu, a young entrepreneur.

The specialists who deal in such human resources companies, however, also discuss another problem: stability.

“We have a great volume of work and large fluctuation. They come and go. It is harder with the remaining, that's why we brought from outside the country, we have from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Vietnam. This is a very big problem. In general we find, but they do not like work. The function in Revisal. He rendered from his own experience Mihaela Paraschivescu. He has been working in the human resources department for one of the largest construction companies in the county for eight years, which has projects employed throughout the country. Because at one point the employer did not find workers on the labor market in the country, he appealed, like others, to the import of labor from non-EU countries.

“They landed in Bucharest and no one left the airport. A whole plane”

There were also shocking events, five years ago, to bring the first foreign workers.

“I had a situation in which they landed in Bucharest and none from the airport. An entire plane. Our colleagues waited for them from two to three to four hours, no one came out. (…) Or, I had situations when they arrived, and the next morning, when I made the presence, they had luggage left, some left even the passports in the room and fled, passed the border. This happened five years ago, when I brought the first. We have been foreign for five years now and we have no such problems. Eventually they resign, announces us ”, Paraschivescu completed.

When a foreign worker leaves things, things are even more complicated than at the termination of a work contract for a Romanian. The State Embassy from which the worker came must be announced, the immigration service is announced, things get complicated. However, there are also foreign workers, said the company representative, who has been working in the company for almost five years, and with them are already communicated in Romanian. Employees return to their country on leave, but every time they come back.

It is harder with Romanian workers, employers insist. “People want to work as little as possible as possible, which is not possible. We are employed on good money. We hire them today, tomorrow I do not come, no tomorrow, the third day we cease their employment contracts. And this happens almost weekly. It is a continuous flow.”said the company representative.

“We have movements in an indescribable revisal”

Another employer pointed out that they are experiencing the same problems: lack of qualified personnel and high fluctuation. It would be a big plus if they would solve the problem of qualifications at least partly. “All the time they come and go. We have movements in indescribable revisal. The more people who are specialized, in any field, the better, because we have to reach the European countries and do the work if not the same, at least to approach the quality they have in construction. “explained the employer.

It happens, an aspect that the employers recognize, and for the companies to offer the employees with whom they enter the competition, from here and so many inputs and exits from the company. Often the employees who have barely learned the job, at the workplace. “The biggest problem is that we take them unqualified, we qualify them at work, we learn their job, then they go elsewhere. We have reached situations where they leave and for 100 lei more to pay”, Antonio Neacșu reported.

The hardest thing is to work with long -term unemployed, it is the almost unanimous opinion of the employers. From the AJOFM data, the many unemployed people who do not even manage to engage are those without studies, primary school graduates or at most with eight classes. For them it becomes very difficult and the minimum qualification at the workplace, the positions that are offered being those of unskilled worker. It happened that they could not be kept even during the qualification courses, because they were no longer presented at the courses, although they were employed with legal forms including during the training period.

Although in the case of foreign workers there is a little greater stability, they are qualified and they are very small. “And they are still unqualified. We also have qualified, but rarely. We hire unskilled workers if they have no other qualifications validated in Romania. But we also had installers, welders, masons, they came with qualification, we legalize them in Romania”said the representative of the employer who has been using five years and workforce from abroad.

The salary of an unskilled starts today from the minimum wage, which means just over 3,000 lei, the money that the worker receives. However, a worker can reach 4,000, 4,500, 5,000 and even 6,000 lei, those “Serious and who have been working on us for a long time.”

Employers say they fail to hold on too much time a lot of photo workers: ICDI

The employers expressed, in fact, the dissatisfaction that no sanction is provided for the legislation for those who “only confuse” the employer. “The Labor Code allows them to assume any responsibility. If this work code allows to be sanctioned if they leave, the man would stay at work. If you can, the employee has no responsibility. I force me to give 4,500 lei to any of them. He doesn't know how to do anything. Apart from the fact that you force me to hire him before a day to come to work and I do not know him, I know him from the Internet ”said the of another employer.

“Young people are much more conscientious in terms of work”

Although young people are often criticized that they have too big requirements even during the period when they only accumulate knowledge and experience, employers in the field of construction are of a different opinion. I say that unlike those with seniority in the field of work, who leave unexpectedly, young people take on this step and send them to their employers that they no longer agree that they continue to work.

“To know that generally young people are generally. And that's what I tell you after eight years of experience. Young people are much more conscientious about work. And if he doesn't want to come and tell you a phone and tell you: Lady, close the contract that I don't want to, I found another. It should be more … I think we all have problems at home, but we have to understand that we have to respect ourselves first of all ”said Paraschivescu.