In the article, Karpovičienė admits that Girteka has been “having issues in finding and hiring enough EU-based drivers” and has thus turned its focus to hire “non-EU nationals, including from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and India, as well as Gulf Coast countries”.
Girteka is of course by no means the only logistics player going down this route. However, Karpovičienė believes the company are doing things the right the way by recruiting and onboarding 3rd-country drivers more directly.
A number of Girteka’s competitors have used agencies to hire staff from countries across Asia. However, the Lithuanian transport giant says it has heard of “malpractice and frauds” by external agencies who recruit 3rd country drivers for vacancies in the EU.
As stated on Girteka’s website, Karpovičienė says there is a need for close cooperation with national and local authorities to support and control the process according to the existing requirements and law regulations.
The appeal by the Head of Girteka Transport’s HR Expansion Department was made in light of what she and her colleagues have heard about some recruitment agencies:
“We have heard about malpractice and frauds during employment in the EU, done by external agencies not related to any governmental organization and any transport companies. Therefore, we need to focus on promoting proper and acting by the law organizations, that can support logistics companies in building attractiveness of drivers job in Europe. Yet the best and most secure solution is always approaching directly logistics companies, that conducts hiring activities outside EU, like we are doing already in many countries,” said Karpovičienė, as quoted on Girteka’s own website.
Girteka’s piece also called on EU organizations and authorities to “re-evaluate the attitude towards a new possible solution” to solve the driver shortage, “including hiring drivers from outside the EU”.