Norway to grant Ukrainian residents permission to work as bus drivers
Photo: e24.no/Ørjan
Ukrainian immigrants in Norway are seeking permission to work as bus drivers. In the past, they had to reside in the country for at least four years.
According to e24.no, this is the strategy that authorities rely on to fill hundreds of job openings in the transportation sector.
What is the problem?
Since the beginning of the war, about 70,000 Ukrainians have come to Norway. According to rough estimates, several hundred of them were bus drivers in their country.
However, the current rules do not allow them to get jobs in Norway, although the bus companies need hundreds of drivers.
What is the solution?
The Norwegian authorities are preparing to present a draft law that will allow Ukrainian refugees to be employed as bus and truck drivers by the end of the year.
"The four-year residence requirement is unfair when Poles and Slovaks can come here and get a job in almost a day," said Ukrainian Natalia Mon, who worked as a bus driver in Bergen for six years.
The Ministry of Transport of Norway has already proposed recognizing the training of Ukrainian bus drivers and lowering the requirements. The Ministry of Labor and Inclusion has also proposed a temporary exemption from the residency requirement for bus drivers if they can provide a police certificate from their home country.
How does it work?
The director of a transportation company is focused on recruiting the first wave of Ukrainian refugees to work in the spring. In Bergen alone, 40 drivers have already signed up. According to the director, they expect to hire approximately 200 Ukrainian drivers in Norway over the next year.
He believes that a temporary change in the law will be a win-win for all parties: Ukrainians will get decent jobs, the government will get tax revenues, and the industry will close vacant positions.
