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
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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
Fair mobility – actively promoting free movement for workers in a social and fair manner
Fair mobility for posted workers through the Enforcement Directive? Countless media contributions and experiences from advising workers in the Project Fair Mobility have proven it: there’s hardly an area so prone to abuse than the posting of workers. Posted workers from other EU member states are not only frequently the victims of wage dumping and social dumping, but are also housed in inhuman conditions and in practice hardly have a chance to assert their rights. Now a European legislative initiative is supposed to provide relief. In the final session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, MEPs will vote on a highly controversial dossier: the so-called Enforcement Directive to the posted workers directive. Prior to the vote, there have been tough negotiations in the Council and in the socalled informal trilogue. What is being dealt
with here is not – as trade unions have been demanding for years – a revision of the Posting of Workers Directive, but rather a better implementation and enforcement of this directive. Many promises are connected with this directive: letter box companies and bogus postings are to be combated and better inspected; the rights of posted workers are supposed to be strengthened by a better enforcement of the law and better information. It might be the case that the draft enforcement measure might be improved under pressure by the European Parliament, but ultimately the results have turned out rather austere: instead of obligating member states to adopt more efficient controls and accountability rules, the possibilities for national authorities are restricted. Nonbinding defini-
tions and legal consequences also do not combat abuses by letter box companies and bogus postings. In order to reach a quick agree ment before the European elections, many compromises were made and vague regulations formulated. Problems are thus not solved, but rather shifted to the courts. Thus an important chance was missed to finally combat widespread abuse and improve the situation of posted workers. Whatever the results of the vote in the middle of April are, the strengthening of the rights of posted workers on national and European levels remains a central concern for trade unions – before and after the election. Alexandra Kramer Political Aide, DGB-BVV, European Policy Department
Facts and figures about our advisory work – trouble in all branches In 2012, Fair Mobility had four advisory centres, whose experts counselled around 1,950 Branches of those people in 818 cases. In 2013, we grew to seeking advice 2013 six centres, advising around 3,500 people in 1,632 cases. In 35 percent of the cases, those seeking help had either received too little or no pay for their work. Nearly 48 percent came from Poland, 30 percent from Bulgaria and 10 percent from Romania. The vast majority worked in the construction industry, transport and logistics or in building cleaning services. Half of the latter group were cleaning employees in the hotel industry. Further branches included domestic work and home caregivers, the meat processing industry and metals and electrical workers. Miscellaneous areas of work, which comprised 17% of the total, included among others guards and security personnel, teachers, university graduates, and information technology experts. Cases of highly qualified workers are also generally on the rise. The caseload handled tion in logistics centres, at construction sites only possible to a limited degree in 2013. by our advisory centres is nearly at full capac- or at particular transportation hubs, serv- In around 95% of all cases we were able to ity. Proactive counselling of workers on loca- ing as a possible preventative measure, was help those seeking advice.
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Project Fair Mobility www.faire-mobilitaet.de
April 2014 Negotiating success at a scandalous construction site: Romanian construction workers get back pay Fifty Romanian construction workers showed up in February 2014 at the Fair Mobility advisory centre in Frankfurt am Main. Employed since November 2013 on a hotel construction site in Frankfurt’s Europaviertel (European Quarter), they had for weeks received little or no pay. The situation was desolate. Donations were collected in order to supply the workers with vital necessities. The men worked for the subcontractor K&T Contract Germarom, which had agreed to supply carpentry work to the general contractor Max Bögl at the hotel construction site. Originally, the construction workers, some of whom had been trained as skilled craftsmen in carpentry, were promised net pay of 1,200 euros a month. Compared to the monthly average wage in Romania of 450 euros, that was a very attractive offer.
On 24 February, the carpenters went on strike and demonstrated in front of the construction site for their pay. At first, the general contractor offered pocket money in the amount of 100 euros and a free ticket back to Romania. Outraged by the offer, the workers refused to accept. Aided by the European Migrant Workers Union (EMWU), the workers instead meticulously wrote down and calculated the hours they had worked. Their demands amounted to 100,000 euros. At the same time, the workers decided to continue their protests. When EMWU, the IG BAU construction union in Hesse and Fair Mobility made public the exorbitant amount owed to them, people were scandalized. A wave of solidarity began, and the national media began to report on the case. Finally, the chief negotiator for IG BAU, Ralf Helwerth, announced
on 4 March that the general contractor had agreed to pay 100.000 euros to the 50 workers. “The cohesion of the construction workers amongst themselves, together with our solidarity was the key to success,” said Mihai Balan, a co-worker at Fair Mobility in Frankfurt, whose advisory centre in Hesse is housed at the EMWU. This case demonstrates the practical relevance of a statutory no-fault liability for general contractors, holding them responsible for their actions. It shows what consequences could come if the current German liability law were be weakened by the new EU Enforcement Directive. Mihai Balan Fair Mobility Frankfurt am Main
Swabian car parts supplier cuts costs using posted workers from Croatia Daimler, Audi, Volkswagen and Porsche are all household names. They all order car parts from the supplier Binder in the Swabian Alps. In Binder’s Factory 2, around 60 kilometres east of Stuttgart, Croatian workers trim aluminium mouldings and roof railings for luxury class cars. Some of the workers have turned to Fair Mobility’s advisory centre in Stuttgart. According to them, around 100 employees were recruited by the company Zagreb Montaza Vikom in Croatia and sent to work at Binder. All of the 30 Croatian workers with whom Fair Mobility is in contact say they had no formal employment relationship with the posting company before they were sent to Germany. Zagreb Montaza Vikom has a special service contract with the Binder Group. Within that, there is probably a clause stipulating that the company will process a specific number of mouldings within a set time period. If needed, the workers posted from
Zagreb Montaza Vikom are supplemented with temporary workers. The Croatian employees say they work around 260 to 300 hours a month at a piecerate, earning around 1,800-2,200 euros net pay a month. In some cases, they had only six to eight hours’ rest between shifts. They were intentionally given shifts on Sundays and holidays. There was no extra pay for weekends, as the posting company had not signed the appropriate Croatian union wage agreement. Furthermore, part of their wages were paid as a bonus. The workers also criticised the lack of an electronic time clock, which meant there were frequent mistakes in calculating the hours they had worked. When they were ill for more than three days, overtime was subtracted from their pay, even if they brought a doctor’s note. In addition, the contracts they had signed in Croatia were replaced by new ones after they arrived in Germany. In the new contract, they agreed to live
in apartments rented by the Binder Group, for which each worker pays 216 euros a month for a bed in a shared room. Some four-room apartments are used to house up to nine people. In one case, Fair Mobility discovered that the rent for the apartment was 700 euros. Binder is well-known to the German metalworkers union IG Metall. Many past attempts to found a works council were thwarted by Binder’s management. IGMetall’s chief representative in GöppingenGeislingen, Bernd Rattay, sees a common pattern: “The Binder Group is trying to offset the higher costs of hiring temporary workers, who are bound by union wage agreements, by using special service contracts.” Since the company is in this case employing Croatian posted workers, it should – compared to its competitors – be able to earn a sizeable extra profit. Katarina Franković Fair Mobility Stuttgart
Project Fair Mobility www.faire-mobilitaet.de
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Fair mobility – actively promoting free movement for workers in a social and fair manner
Annelie Buntenbach and Fair Mobility in Sofia and Bucharest “In Germany, you’re discussing so-called poverty immigration from Bulgaria and Romania, and we’re discussing how to keep our doctors and skilled workers here.” Speaking at a press conference on 12 February in Sofia, Bulgaria, that is how a Bulgarian journalist summed up the contrasting perceptions of problems posed when Eastern European citizens seek work abroad within the EU. The occasion was a four-day visit by Annelie Buntenbach and some Fair Mobility co-workers in Romania and Bulgaria, in which they presented the brochure, “Knowledge is Protection”. This guide, translated into Romanian and Bulgarian, is directed at people who want to work in Germany, and explains their rights to them. At the press conferences in Sofia and Bucharest and in conversations with the Bulgarian Minister of Labour Hassan Ademov and his Romanian colleague Mariana Câmpeanu, Annelie Buntenbach emphasized that labour unions in Germany support the introduction of complete labour mobility for Romania and Bulgaria. She stressed that the participating countries and the EU Commis-
sion have the responsibility to provide clear rules for the European labour market and to enforce them, so that forms of extreme labour exploitation could be eradicated. An important step in this direction is ensuring that mobile employees are well-informed of their rights and opportunities – if possible, before they travel to Germany.
Plamen Dimitrov, President of the CITUB and Annelie Buntenbach at the press conference on 12 February 2014
April 2014 The Fair Mobility project supports mobile workers from Central and Eastern European EU countries, helping to ensure them equitable pay and fair working conditions on the German labour market. In our six information centres in Berlin, Hamburg, Dortmund, Stuttgart, Frankfurt/Main and Munich, mobile workers can obtain support and inform themselves in their native languages about labour and welfare laws. We produce information materials in various languages, and offer educational resources and seminars that make people aware of and enlighten them about the situation of mobile workers. The project is steered by an advisory board comprised of union representatives from Germany, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria as well as representatives of the German and Polish labour and welfare ministries. Political responsibility for the project lies with the Executive Board of the DGB. Further project partners are the bfw – Unternehmen für Bildung, the European Migrant Workers Union (EMWU), the Project Consult GmbH (PCG) and the DGB Bildungswerk Bund.
New EU project offering advice for cross-border workers Together with the agency Arbeit und Leben/ Berlin, Fair Mobility is working on a project to create new information centres for EU labour migrants and posted workers, in a measure sponsored by the Department of Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion at the EU Commission. Approved in March 2014, the project involves the labour union confederations CITUB in Bulgaria and ZSSS in Slovenia, as well as the union FGS-Familia in Romania, each
financed by:
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of which will establish information centres that will cooperate closely with Fair Mobility. Workers seeking employment in Germany will be able to inform themselves about their rights and opportunities. Furthermore, information material in various languages will be developed. The one-year project will be the basis for the Department of Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion to develop further measures involving information centres for mobile workers.
Imprint Publisher: Projekt Faire Mobilität DGB, Keithstr. 1 – 3, 10787 Berlin Tel.: 030/21 24 05 41 mobilitaet@dgb.de Editors: Dominique John, Hauke Reich, Volker Roßocha Layout: Julika Matthess Translation: Ellen Thalman V.i.S.d.P.: Annelie Buntenbach Berlin, April 2014