Pole to Pole

Following on from our report last week regarding the threat to UK Construction of the potential re-migration of Polish workers back Poland and the Ukraine, to help build facilities for the 2012 Football Euro-Championships, Economists have now warned that Poland will need to lure back over 200,000 workers in order to get facilities ready for 2012. They also say that work will need to be started straight away on the planning and building of the infrastructure which could create a shortage of labour onthe Londons Olympic project that is currently underway.

As well as stadiums, hotels and other tourist facilities, the Polish government has said it wants to use the event to make massive investments in transport infrastructure, including work on major roads and train stations and upgrades of railway lines.

Many Polish construction workers in the UK have said they would be happy to return home to work on Euro 2012. Workers have hinted they would willingly take lower wages or even work for free to help their country to prepare for the showpiece event.

Quoted in Personnel Today Paweł Pontowski, a Pole working in London, told a Polish paper: "As soon as the news was announced, [my colleagues] got together and decided we wouldn't be staying in England much longer....The English are laughing and saying that, since all the Polish builders are here, there will be no-one to build the stadiums in Poland. But when they see how tens of thousands of Poles will just vanish, their smiles will disappear."