Fair mobility – actively promoting free movement for workers in a social and fair manner
Newsletter
April 2014
Nr. 1
Editorial
Guest contribution by Annelie Buntenbach
The Fair Mobility project is entering a new phase. Now that the project’s foundations have been laid and its advisory centres are fully up and running, we plan to present our accomplishments in a newsletter three to four times a year. Due to strong interest in the project from abroad and the related growth of international networking, it will appear both in German and English. In our first issue’s guest contribution, Annelie Buntenbach, who has shepherded and supported the project since its launch, emphasizes the need for trade unions to support workers who come to Germany from abroad. In addition, we present news about the caseload our advisory centres handle, and discuss negotiations over the EU’s Enforcement Directive, which aims to improve the treatment of workers posted from one country to another within the member states. Besides the regular feature, “Case Studies From Advisory Work”, we will also publish a variety of information about the project’s development under “Fair Mobility news”.
Pushing back precarious employment in Europe is the key to fair worker mobility
Contents P. 1 P. 2 P. 3 P. 4
Guest contribution Enforcement Directive Fair Mobility in numbers Case studies from advisory work Fair Mobility news
Workers who come to Germany need information about their rights as well as competent advice and support. The Fair Mobility project responds to this need. Its advisory centers encounter case after case that reveal what happens when workers, with little knowledge of their rights and in a weak negotiating position, enter a job market deregulated over a decade-and-a-half. This is especially true of the construction industry, the hotel and hospitality bran ches, the meat pro- Annelie Buntenbach, cessing industry and Member of the Executhe transport and tive Board of German logistics businesses. Trade Union ConfederaBut it is evident even tion DGB, © DGB in core areas of manufacturing, especially in industry-related services. In this sector, there has been a massive expansion of temporary work and, most recently, of specific service contracts that circumvent collective bargaining agreements on working conditions. A large number of employees from Eastern and Central Europe fall victim to this deregulated labour market. Relegated to one of the low-wage sectors, they are exploited by wage-dumping under miserable working conditions. We unions would like these workers to band together to improve their situation,
regardless of their origins, rather than being pitted against one another. For that to happen, workers who come from abroad must first know their rights and have a chance to assert them. Fair Mobility’s advisory centres assist them with that. There are a number of measures that can improve the labour market situation and subsequently that of our fellow workers from other countries. Among those are: introducing a legal minimum wage, without exceptions and loopholes; making it easier to declare wage agreements binding for all; and rolling back temporary work, illegal employment contracts and other forms of precarious employment. We need accountability regulations for subcontractors, which require general contractors to abide by legitimate labour and compensation conditions for all links in the chain. In the experience of our advisory centres, no-fault liability for general contractors, which holds them responsible for putting people in risky situations, has proven to be an effective legal tool for workers cheated out of their wages. We welcome workers from Eastern European countries. But they need information and competent advice to navigate the labour market – and the labour market needs clear rules to protect the dignity of working people.
Project Fair Mobility www.faire-mobilitaet.de