An offer over the fence: how we handled a worker's move and filled his position

01 / Friday

A minute and forty seconds of Hindi at 21:40

On Friday at 21:40 a voice message of a minute and forty seconds appeared on the phone of Rajesh, our Worker Relations Manager for India. It was from Sanjay, an electrician in the group we had brought to a dry building mix plant near Bila Tserkva four months earlier. He spoke in Hindi, quietly and quickly, the way people talk in a house where their roommates are already asleep.

The gist was simple. Outside the village shop a supervisor from the metal structures plant on the other side of the fence, in the same industrial park, had come up to him. They were looking for electricians, offered noticeably higher pay and a bed in their own hostel, and he could start on Monday. About the paperwork the supervisor said only that they would sort it out later. Sanjay was not asking about money. He was asking whether his visa and permit would move with him, and whether there would be any trouble if on Monday he simply went to work across the road.

Rajesh listened to the message twice. He had no intention of talking Sanjay out of anything: people are entitled to look for a better job. But at eight on Monday morning Sanjay could find himself in a position where everyone was at risk: himself, the plant he worked for and the plant that wanted him. There were two days left before Monday. Rajesh replied that he would call back at nine in the morning and asked Sanjay not to promise anyone anything until then.

The question was not whether a person may change jobs. The question was in what order.

02 / Six months earlier

Ten people for the chief mechanical engineer's team and the choice of country

To see what was at stake, let us go back six months. The plant was preparing to launch its second stage and came to WORKIN with a specific task: six maintenance fitters and four electricians for the chief mechanical engineer's team, with experience at large industrial sites, in time for a launch four months away. The plant did not name a country. Olena, who runs client projects at WORKIN, wrote down the chief mechanical engineer's requirements and asked us to compare the options.

We looked at four things. Experience at plants with heavy equipment specifically, not just years of work. Language, because the chief mechanical engineer speaks English and discusses diagrams and drawings with his staff in it. The length of the route against the launch date. And the pool of candidates our partners had in these two trades. Visa-free countries offer a shorter route, but at that point our partners there had few electricians with industrial experience. Our licensed partner in Kanpur, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, had dozens of such candidates: people with technical college diplomas as fitters or electricians and years at cement, sugar and steel plants, the more senior of whom speak English.

The route from India is longer: Indian citizens need a D visa to work in Ukraine, and the whole journey takes eight to twelve weeks on average. It fitted into four months with room to spare, provided selection started at once. We proposed India, explained why the start had to be immediate, and the plant agreed.

Who is needed

6 maintenance fitters and 4 electricians with industrial experience

Why India

Experience at large plants, English, a candidate pool at the Kanpur partner

Route

Permit, D visa, entry across a land border

Timing

Second stage launch in four months

03 / Selection and travel

From a training workshop in Kanpur to a house next to the industrial park

Rajesh held the interviews together with the partner. Out of forty-two applications, seventeen people made it to the practical task. Each did it on camera in the partner's training workshop: the electricians wired a motor starter circuit and traced a fault left in it on purpose, the fitters stripped down and reassembled a pump unit, replacing a bearing. The chief mechanical engineer watched every recording, spoke to each candidate in English by video call, approved ten and asked for three to be kept in reserve.

Sanjay was among the first to be approved. He is thirty-one, from a village near Kanpur, and spent six years as an electrician at a cement plant in Satna, in the neighbouring state. At home he has his wife Pooja and two daughters, the elder of whom started school this year. He was going abroad to finish the second floor of his parents' house and said so plainly at the interview. Rajesh remembered it: when someone travels to earn money for a specific goal, any offer of higher pay sounds very loud.

Before departure everyone received an information sheet: the plant, the job title exactly as it would appear in the permit, the term and pay from the draft contract, the housing address, the costs borne by the candidate and WORKIN's phone numbers. Rajesh went through the sheet with the group in Hindi, and each person signed to confirm the terms were clear. Nataliia, Head of Documents at WORKIN, put together the plant's documents using the checklist, and decisions on all ten permits came within seven working days.

Then came the consulate in New Delhi, the D visa packages and a run-through of the questions about the job, the position and the employer. The visas were issued in week nine. The group arrived in a country neighbouring Ukraine and crossed the land border the same day with passports, permit copies and the housing address. We had checked the documents for the two houses the plant rented in the village well in advance: that address is needed for temporary residence permits and registration of the place of residence.

On moving in, everyone received the guide for foreign employees, and Rajesh retold it in Hindi. In the section on restrictions, the first line reads: you may not work for another employer, because the permit is issued only for your employer. Sanjay signed for the guide. Four months later it turned out that a line on paper and a real person outside a shop promising higher pay carry different weight.

1. Weeks 1-3

   Interviews in Kanpur, 17 practical tasks on video, 10 approved, 3 in reserve.

2. Week 4

   Packages for 10 permits, decisions within seven working days.

3. Weeks 5-8

   Invitations, consulate in New Delhi, D visa packages.

4. Weeks 9-10

   Visas, group entry across the land border, moving in.

5. Week 11

   Contracts, tax numbers, residence permit applications, first shift.

04 / Saturday

Fifty minutes of conversation and a sheet split into three columns

At nine on Saturday morning Rajesh video-called Sanjay. For the first ten minutes he barely spoke and only asked questions: who exactly had approached him, what was promised, was anything in writing, had anyone asked for his passport. Nothing was in writing. There was the supervisor's phone number, a promise of higher pay, a bed in a hostel and the line about paperwork later.

Then Rajesh asked Sanjay to take a sheet of paper and split it into three columns. In the first they wrote down what existed now: a permit issued to the dry mix plant for Sanjay as an electrician, an employment contract with that plant and a residence permit arranged for that job. In the second, what would happen if on Monday he started work across the road without new documents. In the third, what a move looks like after which he works at the new plant lawfully.

The second column was the longest: a fine for the plant next door, grounds to revoke the permit of the plant Sanjay works for now, and a job without a single document for Sanjay himself. In an inspection nobody asks whether the paperwork was promised for later.

The third column was short and calm. The new employer obtains its own permit for Sanjay, and the decision is made within seven working days of filing a complete package. Sanjay moves once that permit has been issued and his contract with the current plant has ended on an agreed date. His residence permit will have to be reissued for the new employer, and that too is better known before the move than after it.

Rajesh did not tell Sanjay he was making a mistake, and he did not try to frighten him. WORKIN will not hold anyone against their will, he said, but it will not keep quiet when on Monday a person might walk into the situation where he alone carries the greatest risk. Sanjay asked for time until Sunday.

05 / The permit

Why a permit does not move with the person

This is where not only workers but companies too are often surprised, so let us look at the rule separately. A work permit is obtained by the employer for a specific foreign national and a specific position. The person is not the owner of the document but the one it was obtained for. That is why the dry mix plant's permit gives nothing to the metal structures plant, even if both stand behind the same fence and the job title is identical.

The Law on Employment of the Population allows a foreign national to work for several employers only if each of them has obtained a permit. The other rules are summarised in the table, where fines are counted in minimum wages as at the date the breach is found.

For the client plant the key point follows from this. While Sanjay is its employee, he works only there and only in the position stated in the permit. Once the contract ends, the permit is closed with a revocation application, so that the plant is not left holding a valid permit for someone who already works elsewhere. What the company is responsible for is described on the page on employer duties, and how permits work in a group of several legal entities is covered in the scenario on a restaurant group.

06 / Monday

The HR director hears it from us, not from talk around the industrial park

On Sunday evening Sanjay wrote to Rajesh: he did want to move, but only as described in the third column, and he had already told the supervisor he would not start without a permit. The supervisor replied that he would pass this on to his HR department. On Monday at 8:30 Andrii Savchuk, Deputy Director at WORKIN, responsible for operations and the guarantee, called the HR director of the dry mix plant.

He told her everything as it was, including the fact that Sanjay had already promised not to start next door without documents. Her first question was whether they could refuse to let him go. Andrii explained that a person is entitled to change employer and that our task was a different one: that until his last day Sanjay worked only under his own permit, that the end date of his contract was agreed rather than sudden, and that the position did not stay empty for longer than a new person's route takes.

Dismissal, the order and the final settlement are for the plant's HR department. WORKIN takes care of the permit, the explanations to Sanjay and the replacement. The arrangement was this: Sanjay submits his resignation once the plant next door shows him an issued permit, and Nataliia prepares the application to revoke the permit.

Andrii also checked the guarantee conditions. The WORKIN replacement guarantee runs for at least 6 months from the worker's first shift, provided the agreed working, pay and housing conditions are kept. Sanjay had worked for four months. He was paid the amount and on the dates set in his contract, the housing matched the information sheet, and he worked in his own position. The reason for leaving was another employer's offer, not a broken agreement. So the replacement search is not charged again, while state fees, the migration partner's services, travel and living costs for the new person are paid by the plant.

1. 01

   What we established

   Working, pay and housing conditions were kept; the reason for leaving was another employer's offer.

2. 02

   What we agreed

   Sanjay moves only after the neighbouring plant's permit and agrees the date with HR.

3. 03

   Who does what

   Plant HR handles dismissal and settlement; WORKIN handles revocation, explanations and replacement.

4. 04

   When the replacement starts

   That same Monday, without waiting for Sanjay's last day.

07 / Three dates

Sanjay's last day and the permit revocation application

The plant next door arranged its permit through its own lawyer, and Rajesh gave Sanjay three pieces of advice. Do not hand over your passport, only copies. Do not start the new job until you have seen the issued permit and signed a contract. And write straight away if anything goes differently from the third column. Two and a half weeks later the neighbouring plant's HR department showed Sanjay the issued permit, and he forwarded Rajesh a photo of it.

That same day Sanjay wrote his resignation, and the dry mix plant's HR agreed his last working day with him. Nataliia prepared a short note for the plant with three dates in the right order: the permit issued to the new employer, the end of the contract at the old job, the contract at the new one. In that chain there was not a single day on which Sanjay would have worked under someone else's permit.

On the working day after the contract ended, the plant's director signed the permit revocation application and we filed it. The decision is made within three days, and after it the plant no longer held a valid permit for a person working elsewhere. Sanjay arrived at the new plant with a permit issued in his name and a signed contract. Rajesh then held one more conversation in Hindi, with the nine who stayed: without names or judgement, he repeated the rule about the new employer's own permit and reminded them they could call even at 21:40 on a Friday.

Neighbouring plant's permit

Issued before Sanjay's last day at the old job

Dismissal

At the worker's request, handled by the plant's HR

Revocation application

Prepared by WORKIN, signed by the plant, filed the next working day

Decision

Within three days

Passport

With Sanjay throughout, only copies to the new employer

08 / Replacement

Amit from the reserve list and a new permit for the same position

The three reserve candidates from the Kanpur selection knew they might be needed. Rajesh kept in touch with them once a month, so that same Monday afternoon he was already talking to the first on the list. Amit is twenty-seven, an electrician with experience at a sugar plant in Uttar Pradesh, and in the intervening months he had not taken a permanent job because he was waiting for Ukraine. His passport is valid for another three years.

The chief mechanical engineer remembered Amit's video but asked for another twenty minutes' conversation in English about his last six months of work, and on Wednesday Amit was approved. That same day Rajesh went through the information sheet with him in Hindi, with the same terms Sanjay had, line by line, including the line about another employer.

A new permit was filed for Amit rather than the old one being rewritten: a permit is obtained for a specific person and cannot pass to someone else. Nataliia already had the plant's documents, so only Amit's package was needed: copies of his passport pages with a certified translation, a photo and a draft contract with the same position of electrician. The decision came within seven working days, and the invitation was made from the group's template.

Amit's visa was issued in week eight after the voice message, and in week ten he crossed the land border with his passport, a copy of the permit and the housing address. Rajesh met him on the Ukrainian side of the checkpoint. Amit signed his contract in the first days, we filed the copy within the 10-day term, and his residence permit application went in at the same address where the group lives.

1. Day 1

   Call to the plant, guarantee conditions checked, talk with the first reserve candidate.

2. Day 3

   The chief mechanical engineer approves Amit, information sheet with the same terms.

3. Weeks 2-3

   Package for the new permit, decision within seven working days.

4. Week 3

   Neighbouring plant's permit, Sanjay's last day, revocation application.

5. Weeks 4-8

   Invitation from the group's template, consulate, D visa.

6. Week 10

   Amit's entry, contract, residence permit application, handover to the chief mechanical engineer's team.

09 / Summary

One move without breaches and one position filled in ten weeks

Conversation

In Hindi, before Monday, three scenarios on one sheet

Move

Only after the new employer's permit

Plant's paperwork

Resignation, revocation application the next working day

Guarantee

Conditions kept, replacement search not charged again

Replacement

Amit from the same selection's reserve, arrival in week ten

You cannot keep someone who has decided to leave by forbidding it, and we do not try. What we do is make sure the move is not a breach for either the person or the plant, and we start the replacement on the day we learn about the departure. The WORKIN replacement guarantee runs for at least 6 months from the worker's first shift, provided the agreed working, pay and housing conditions are kept: the replacement search is not charged again, while state fees, the migration partner's services, travel and living costs of the new worker are paid by the company. How to fill several positions under the guarantee at one plant is covered in the scenario on a cable plant, and a worker's urgent trip home in the scenario on a building materials warehouse. We handle documents after arrival as part of migration support, and the whole journey is described on How it works. More on the pages on workers for manufacturing, production workers from abroad, workers from India and recruitment.

10 / FAQ

Questions and answers