Workers get less money and fewer rights and not just in the Meat Industry. German labor minister who because high are now wants to change things or didnt come it will ban contract work and temporary work in the core activities of the Meat Industry because the pandemic called attention to contract worker exploitation in germany. The town of failed near fate of eating pork at the end of june thousands of people from Eastern Europe are essentially under house arrest guarded by police their work at the turn a slaughterhouse has been suspended. Around 7000 employees are in quarantine. A few kilometers away a relief operation is underway fate of eden park residents have made donations for the workers one of the organizers is an approach nida for over 70 years shes been fighting for the rights of turn his workers. Being this much more than we ever expected it happened very. No tests our idea is to give cat packages in solidarity said the web to see that this anger isnt directed at them but its not visitors theres something going on. Over 1000 packages have been collected containing food toiletries and even toys. Georgia gave up and stand mammie head off distribute donations and found where many Chinese Workers live in shared apartments. Mickael often georgieva give support to Migrant Workers from Eastern Europe or. They translate for us here number. One bulgarian says hes been a meat cutter for joining us for 18 months. Were going to offer to go in for example if a veterinarian marks any spots on the pig that are not suitable for consumption but one of his jobs is to cut them off as an adult. The man is employed by a subcontractor he gets the minimum wage 9 year olds 35. 00 an hour he hasnt received a paycheck for months he lives here in an 80 square metre apartments with 8 others next door we meet some men and women from polish than in them the men are contract workers for 10 years and also live here and collective accommodations how many people live here we ask 8 o 9 s 3 room apartment we want to know more about the tourneys workers Living Conditions we say will give them a camera for 20 minutes so they can take some pictures of their place one of the men refuses to do it must show the other one takes our camera and goes off to take some pictures. Look like theyre all younger but after a few moments he comes back another man appears behind him and he doesnt seem to like the contract worker talking to us. The worker is told to give the camera back. Resisting we ask who the man asked. Is it that the boss. Decision yes yes and. He sends the workers back into the house would he ordered them to leave the fifths over its a shame that happened by. I need to avoid because some of them wanted to talk to us and to tell us what was happening to them even if. I hope there are no bad consequences for them now and for the. Workers behind bences guarded by police. How did it come to this. In june 2020 there was a corona Virus Outbreak at tourney innovative beaten book germanys largest slaughterhouse these pictures are from before the pandemic. Flu ventilation system is said to be to blame for the mass infection as well as insufficient physical distancing between employees and one of the workers talked about his experiences in a cell phone video. As long as you felt healthy no one worried that you kept working. They only cared about the money. They didnt care if we died or not. Its likely the employees are spread the virus from the workplace into their homes many live with 3 to 4 people in a single room so the outbreak grew. More than 6000 Chinese Workers were tested more than 1500 more positive. Locals were also being tested. And soon the district went into lockdown again then turned his working editions became a focus of global attention. A small village in the south of romania. Alberto gogu lives in this house with his family he literally pled from a data beaten block in mid june. As a contract worker attorney as he experienced the corona Virus Outbreak he says physical distancing at work was impossible. Even and i cant teen it was too crowded dockery if it was he beats us in mind we were told to distance ourselves but that was impossible otherwise wed have to be standing up and. Alberto says that when the 1st workers got sick he and his colleagues had to work much more what he was doing up to 12 hours a day on the production line even when he felt sick himself. Because i told the boss im not feeling well i have to see a doctor she said youre not going anywhere. Alberto was afraid of catching coronavirus so he went back to romania and mid june. He spent the last 12 years doing contract work in germany but after his experiences in the last few months he says hes had enough. Of that. Thousands of people like alberto go who work at turning us even though the company doesnt actually employ them. Heres how the system of contract work and temporary work functions usually companies have a core workforce if theres more to do it short notice temporary workers can be hired. They become part of the company for a limited time temporary work is rare in the Meat Industry whats common is contract work. This is when a Company Hires sub contractors to carry out a specific job like cutting up animal carcasses. The subcontractor sends its workers to do the job the original company pays for the work to be done but doesnt take responsibility for the personnel who do it they dont belong to the company. To turn a site of 8 of even both works with around 25 subcontractors who mostly source their workers from Eastern Europe. Of a total of 16500. 00 employees only half are employed by turn yes the other half are contract workers. Thats the system being a bunch need it is fighting against when she heard about the poor working and Living Conditions a turn yes she decided to act. In 2013 she and others founded a group to help those affected by exploitation of employment. She shows us articles about. Or work. As early as 2014 the group was pointing out contract workers often alarming Living Conditions. The doubt the plan of the building with the top and use labels to show what wed see theyd be a bad and even that might be a bunk bed so many people live in such a small space there might be one toilet for 10 people. Shows us a cell phone video she made in a flat shared by turning us workers. The living rooms are filled with beds 3. 00 to 4. 00 people sleep in one room. The bathroom is completely rundown. Today many say they knew nothing about the situation. But the and her fellow activists have been criticizing these conditions for 7 years in 2015 and they took their concerns to the highest level. Zeugma then economy minister and vice chancellor visited that night that he took notes as he heard about the situation. Into the sea if he was so interested. That now something would change when he left the house week she said now something will happen. She could hardly believe what happened next. Clements tanyas took gabriele on a guided tour of his Meat Processing plant in front of the cameras it was a p. R. Coup for the businessman the vice chancellor was full of praise despite knowing about the problems at tenuous later he wrote on facebook its good that sets positive standards in an industry that also has a chair of bad apples. 5 years on. Briefly worked for clemens as a consultant for 10000 euros a month and turn us with all his contacts in the political world as one of germanys richest people with an estimated private fortune of up to 2000000000 euros enough to employ a host of contract workers whose poor living and working conditions have been known for years and even a former german vice chancellor. Not every part of the Meat Industry relies on contract workers there are still around 13000 socalled craft butchers in germany. Runs 5 of them in bremen. His Family Business employs around 70 people. How many of your personnel are contract workers. None of them. They wouldnt be here if i put them on a work contract and temporary workers. Or temporary workers. Either a lot of them have been with me for over 10 or 15 years. Jobs from a cheap supermarket might cost 6. 00 heroes a kilo dome on charges double that its not only because of higher wages large slaughterhouses have lower costs and factory farmed fakes are cheaper we do not have a good warm shit advertised as regional pork thats all very well but look the certification of all is one and thats industrial pig farming where only the lowest requirements of Animal Welfare are filled. As president of the german torturers association dont one says small but yours are at a disadvantage for example a government certified veterinary examination of a pig costs a Small Business up to 24. 00 euros businesses that slaughter several 1000 animals a day pay less according to Regional Peace scales and be done in you often with me but at the Big Industrial places the prices at most 150 to 2 year of soil in addition d small butchers pay higher fees for disposing slaughterhouse waste and spend more on electricity because of Renewable Energy levies domani isnt trying to match the industrial slaughterhouse prices but he does want more support from politicians 1. 00 and we dont want special treatment just equal treatment on. Giant slaughterhouses arent just a threat to smaller competitors but often to their own workers to focus is the chairman of the Charity Coffee toss in the district of good test low hes witnessed how the turn his company went from being a simple butcher store to germanys largest slaughterhouse and meat processor he says clemens turning us made his fortune at the expense of workers. To this is not true to hold news makes most of the profit of course theres no question that theyve exploited the poverty gap for professional gain. To news is they also profit because if there are blatant violations. Its always the subcontractors fault as always keeps its hands clean. And has been advising tanyas contract workers and their families since 2016. He and his colleagues have held more than 10000 consultations he knows the methods used to keep monthly wages low. Technically the minimum wage is whats on the pay slip but then there might be 150. 00 or 300. 00 euros deducted for accommodation or for cleaning materials or shoes whatever they can deduct or they increase the rent when people are sick that type of thing there isnt much left over from the minimum wage. Most of the several 1000 contract workers a turn yes far from for parts of Eastern Europe they speak hardly any german. They are brought to the country and put into cramped shared accommodations this also has wider effects on the region is to shift. For this Business Model means that more and more poor people with little education come to the region and its some Point Society is no longer able to cope with it definitely threaten social cohesion. We asked. To comment on the living and working conditions of contract workers in a written response the company didnt go into any detail but he did say it aims to gradually change working conditions plans to directly employ workers in the areas of slaughtering cutting and packaging by the beginning of 2021. Factor that led to the Current Situation was a concerted political push for the labor market flexibility. That was a key part of social democrat chancellor gerhard schroeders socalled agenda 2010. Development as if it ladies and gentlemen were going to have to cut. Back on state benefits demand personal responsibility and ask more from each individual. Agenda 2010 ushered in contract work temporary work and socalled many jobs at the university of applied sciences and copelands professor examines the cause its a precarious employment he says should his labor reforms also known as the hearts reforms weekend workers rights thats because its a. Good deal what the hearts laws brought with them was enormous deregulation of protector labor market provision. They enable temporary work and in my view they made it easier to abuse Something Like contract work. Or to. Sense the hearts reforms to employers in Many Industries have used all equal means to keep wages low and profits high even though contract work was really designed to address seasonal demands for extra labor. The problem in Many Industries is that the core Business Activity is now permanently carried out by contractors. Weve seen it in the Meat Industry and. We also see it in logistics but above all in the construction sector. There the general work has been done by contract workers for years and it has nothing to do with periods of peak demand. Its. Contract work has many advantages for employers if workers stay home because of illness vacation or pregnancy it doesnt cost the employer a cent contract workers also have no voice within the company. And even if we. Get contract work releases the employer from all the obligations they normally have to their employees. Maybe by workers. Contractor the way they buy screws or other goods when this is even close all the costs are personnel costs their material costs on time thats the cost. To turn a scandal brought yet another shock to the political establishment pushing lawmakers to ensure that more chris from abroad who were paid fairly. Germanys upper house in the going to spot voted on a bill to guarantee that workers from other e. U. Countries would get the same pay as german colleagues an effort to prevent socalled social dumping. Buddhist talk lawmaker be author minigame has been fighting against precarious employment in the meat and Agricultural Industries for years if well done to us. Demanding that contract temporary work be prohibitive when it comes to a business is cooler activity in this example companies have to take responsibility themselves and illegally. We think its very important that safeguards is strengthened and that this one single safeguard mechanism for wages working hours to Patients Health and Safety Health protections and accommodation. Again and again there have been legislative attempts to protect workers from social dumping and abuses of the contract work system. We asked germanys Labor Ministry for an interview about the issue several times without success so instead we approached labor minister who bet his heil after the bonus hot session. We prod a list of almost 20 legislative initiatives intended to stop precarious employment relationships in recent years almost all were either rejected or languished in a desk drawer. Promises which mean why cant the government do anything about precarious employment in germany is this because its the states job to do something but in our system its above all the job of stakeholders like unions and employers and theres the problem with our system of social partnership as a road in. Recent years with your fewer and fewer employers are Employers Association and in many sectors far too few employees are in union. To put the blame at the door of unions and employers doesnt quite wash yet we push the minister on why theres been little action from politicians theres no effect on dozens looking for funding by lobbyists you only have to see that in these cases either the lobbyists have watered down laws or if there were strong regulations circumvented them with trickily written contracts involving sub sub contractors thats a good yes im determined to clean up the industry through digital recording of working hours by emphasizing the responsibility of states to adhere to binding inspection quotas with work safety authorities and not just in the Meat Industry and by having clear and enforced rules regarding employee accommodation. Because the strictest rules are of no use if theyre not enforced and were going to ban contract work and temporary work are in the core activities of the Meat Industry but for beacon with that go back to us high a would be taking on some of the Biggest Companies in europe big in part because they keep wages low through contract work. We asked the Employers Association for food and consumption for comment they declined an interview directing our questions to our Meat Industry Employers Group the as. They gave us this written response regarding the planned abolition of contract work and temporary work in the Meat Industry. Contract work is an important instrument of flexibility without flexibility the Meat Industry would go abroad and more than 50 percent of jobs will be threatened. The s. P. S. Argument is one that employers often make. But others strongly disagree. Professor myself works for the German Institute for Economic Research. Of attraction of the ocean and its nice to get rid of germanys not in danger of losing this industry if there are fewer atypical employment arrangements. Thats a myth with no basis in fact not sunanda fact is that German Companies are very competitive internationally not because of atypical employment but because of their highly productive employees. This is a typical employment includes temporary work and contract work but also socalled many jobs fixed Term Contracts and part time work almost a 3rd of german workers have this kind of employment that figure has risen sharply since the 1990 s. And its not just the Meat Industry it happens in many other sectors including logistics. The dortmund Logistics Company or deals g. E. Is a subsidiary of Discount Retail giant teddy it supplies teddy stores throughout europe. In october 29000 we reported on how workers here were striking for better wages are. The head of the Employee Organization at the time philip keynes fought for years for a collective agreement. Says mr katter and no negotiations about the lawyer is refusing to talk to the union according to the Employee Organisation of the company had about 640 employees and 2019 of these about 350 were said to be contract workers. Only 290 women and men were on permanent staff. A year on we meet philip keynes again hes now Union Secretary at the trade union verity we ask whats changed at the d. O. J. As. Its worse today than it was before we now have twice as many contract workers as permanent staff. Do you mean. In teddie are really pushing to use contract work to oust their own employees. The reduction of permanent staff is in full swing in Many Industries. What employers call flexible ization means insecurity and lower pay for employees. Its not just about the Meat Industry contracts are a problem. Used to be entrepreneurial risk the entrepreneur had the money but they also had the risk if there was no work to do thats fallen completely by the wayside today they say they need people to be on call when there is work but they should just disappear when its done just so long as they dont have to pay anyone to stand around. The German Institute for Economic Research is. Also critical of the fact that Companies Often exploit contract work and other such employment arrangements. See that option but. It cant be the goal of german Economic Policy to participate in undercutting competition in europe to push wages even lower and promote ever more atypical employment. After all we know that the goal of companies has to be to be productive and to offer better products. And we can see that atypical employment tends to damage that kind of competitiveness but. Since the 1990 s. Germanys low wage sector has grown by 60 percent mainly thanks to chancellor schroeder as agenda 2010. In a recent study from the bettas month foundation the German Institute for Economic Research found that around. Point 7000000 germans had low wage jobs. More than a 5th of employees work for less than 60 percent of the median incomes and less than 11 year olds 40 an hour. Thats a lot of people by International Standards and 16 feet. In almost all neighboring countries and there are fewer workers in the low wage sector than in germany. And denmark for example workers in the Meat Industry are much better paid. At the danish food trade union and we meet jim hansen. He used to work as a meat cutter himself. We asked him how many contract workers there are in the danish Meat Industry. Why not. Because they have to be employed according to collective agreement they have to be hired by the employer and they have to work for the agreed wages thats the big danish Small Business almost all employees are directly employed by the company. Wages are also much higher. German meat cutters generally only get the statutory minimum wage of 9 year olds 35. 00 an hour. Danish employees receive a standard wage of 27. 00 euro zone on average almost 3 times as much i mean surely no one can afford danish meat at those rates then maybe 2 or 3 percent of the cost of a cutlet will be labor costs it might be 2 percent in germany and 3 percent in denmark and no more so the wage competition is only to make profit you can make more profit in germany think you can a denmark. Says danish Meat Companies also try to push down wages but here almost all employees are in the union that unity makes the workforce strong when companies dont want to strike collective agreements. We can ask for help and support from the other unions then no electrician will come to that company no truck driver will drive in or out and so on. Sooner or later we can persuade them to enter into a collective agreement. Even turn yes itself faces those conditions and denmark. You have we also have to news here in denmark it has to slaughterhouses one in book and one interested are there workers contract workers. Not all their employees employed by turn yes they get the same as everyone else in the industry less than fresh industry. The denmark shows that its possible to run a business successfully and pay employees fairly. Profit making through precarious employment is something germany has perfected above all other European Countries the practice should end in 2021 at least in the Meat Industry as for other industries this legal exploitation is likely to continue to. Kick off from. Taking a clear stance against racism. Calling for music. We talked to a soccer mom for a remake of a club president. And a professional basketball player. They are taking action against hate on and off the court and soccer. Moms are minutes d. W. How does a virus spread. Why do we panic and when were all in this. Country just 3 of the topics covered and the weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like any information on the coronavirus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast so you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also find us at the dot com forum slash science. Thanks. This is developing news live from berlin russian Opposition Leader i like saying as our name is no longer in that means. Doctors treating him here invented insight hes regained consciousness and his response to fast becoming ill move into weeks ago the German Government says the valley was poisoned leaf innovation from the if a child could also coming up crackdown in bellaver Opposition Leader maria has nick of a has reportedly been abducted in broad daylight it comes off to hundreds of protesters were arrested the latest weekend rally against president bush in
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