Fair mobility – actively promoting free movement for workers in a social and fair manner
Newsletter
February 2015
No. 2
Editorial
Guest article by Roman Zitzelsberger
Fair Mobility has been working as a nationwide project network for over four years, and now employs eleven advisors at six locations in Germany. The demand for advisory services has since grown to the point that we find ourselves forced more and more often to put on the brakes and turn people seeking assistance away. Fortunately, several German states have established advisory centres specialized in labour issues to serve workers from Central and Eastern Europe. Hessen and Schleswig-Holstein have now followed Berlin, Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate by taking this step. Together, Fair Mobility and the advisory centres funded by individual states form a nationwide counselling network. The next few months will tell whether we can maintain this network. In his article, Roman Zitzelsberger, Regional Director of IG-Metall Baden-Württemberg, discusses the practice of wage dumping on the basis of service contracts – a recurring issue with which we will be closely concerned for some time to come. With reference to two sample cases, we illustrate the unique blend of practices that is often involved in the posting of employees from abroad under the terms of service contracts. In a third example we discuss cases in which qualified nursing personnel are lured from abroad with contractual agreements that – expressed in cautious terms – place them at a disadvantage. In addition, we also take a look at case volumes at our advisory centres. As mentioned above, the cup is full! On the last page we document the current status of the European Fair Mobility Network, an EU project initiated as a complement to Fair Mobility and one in which we recognize a potential for expansion.
Outsourcing for the purposes of wage dumping and circumventing collective bargaining agreements must stop Production structures in all major branches of industry have changed fundamentally over the past several decades. These changes are the result of agency contracting Roman Zitzelsberger, and the outsourcRegional Director, ing of tasks under IG-Metall service contracts. Baden Württemberg Whereas the development, production and sale of products were organized by and within a single enterprise 30 years ago, a number of different suppliers and service providers are involved within a given value chain today. Presumably, the goal is to reduce permanent staffs drastically while cutting costs. All large corporate groups are situated in or near industrial estates in which services are rendered at each company’s facilities. This begins with IT and high-end development services and extends to maintenance, logistics and pre-assembly work performed directly at the plant. It is important to make distinctions here. Service contracts are not necessarily a bad thing. We trade unions don’t repair our automobiles ourselves and we don’t require car manufacturers to operate cafeterias that serve food they have produced themselves. Problems arise, however, when service contracts are used for the wrong purposes – when permanent jobs are replaced, labour laws circumvented and minimum collective bargaining standards are undermined. These are undoubtedly the cases with which the advisory centres established under the Fair Mobility project are concerned. And in these cases, the fact that many foreign work-
ers have insufficient German language skills is quite obviously exploited. That is inhuman in itself – but the use of “cheap” labour provided by agency workers for the production of highpriced products from the “Musterländle” (the “model state” of Baden-Württemberg) is even worse. It is difficult to say how often such abuses occur. According to surveys conducted by IG-Metall, roughly one-third of all metalworking and electrical technology firms award service contracts. Works council spokespersons are convinced that one out of every three people employed under such service contracts replaces one permanent employee. It is also a fact that, as a rule, working conditions are worse for nearly all agency workers (and not only those from other countries). Many of them are not covered by collective bargaining agreements; they are not represented by works councils; they are not entitled to paid leave, and receive no pay for overtime. And that applies not only to unskilled work. The position of IG-Metall is clear: Outsourcing for the purposes of wage dumping and circumventing collective bargaining agreement must be prohibited. This issue should be addressed by the legislature. The rights of works councils to information and codetermination must be strengthened. And last but not least, regulatory measures must be improved. The Illicit Labour Task Force of the Customs Service must be tasked with monitoring service-contract abuse, and personnel and financial resources must be increased accordingly. In addition, we need a complaint-management system that enables employees, trade unions and works councils to report evidence of abuse. The work of the Fair Mobility project can surely serve as a model in this context.
Project Fair Mobility www.faire-mobilitaet.de
Fair mobility – actively promoting free movement for workers in a social and fair manner
Exploitation of foreign workers by a car manufacturer in Baden-Württemberg Lorenz Dietsche, Managing Director of Binz GmbH, a manufacturer of speciality vehicles which employs 80 people, is dismayed by accusations that Polish workers are exploited by his firm. The facts cited by a reporter for the Südwestrundfunk in a TV program broadcast in April 2014 are based on statements by a Polish citizen who finally turned to the Fair Mobility Advisory Centre in Stuttgart after remaining silent on the matter for some time. According to the Polish worker, PB Composit GmbH, a subsidiary of Binz, has been awarding service contracts for painting and production jobs to Polish companies for several years. The names of these subcontractors change frequently, but those of the workers employed by subcontractors and assigned to the Binz facility do not – a customary procedure designed to minimize costs and extend posting assignments. The wages and working conditions for the
roughly 40 skilled Polish workers differ significantly from those of their German colleagues. Instead of a gross hourly wage rate of approximately 20 EUR (for a 35-hour work week), the Polish workers receive only six EUR per hour. In addition, their contracts call for a daily piece quota that is so high that they are frequently forced to work overtime – often up to 14 hours per day. The workers claim that they receive no pay for these overtime hours, nor are they entitled to a bonus for working on Sundays, as they are regularly required to do. On top of that, the skilled Polish workers say, they are accommodated in substandard collective housing units and subjected to massive control measures at their workplaces. Foremen frequently refuse to allow them to take breaks. The Managing Director of Binz GmbH insists that his company conducts regular reviews of wage and housing conditions. The Polish service contractor, he adds, submitted records
documenting wage payments of between nine and eleven EUR per hours, which is why his firm was astonished to learn of the alleged abuses. It would be too simple to assign responsibility to the service contractor alone. Mr Dietsche agreed, and promised to review every single complaint and disclose his findings openly. His report has not been received to date. Instead, the Polish service contractor terminated the worker who described the abuses in front of a camera. The worker was also told that all Polish companies that post personnel to Germany would be warned about him – a standard method of intimidation with which we are all too familiar from other industries, such as the meat-processing industry. Dr. Dorota Kempter, Christoph Laug Fair Mobility, Stuttgart
A visit with posted Romanian agency workers “We either keep quiet or get kicked out!” Several of the workers gathered nearby confirmed this statement made by a colleague during a counselling visit to a workers’ housing unit near Frankfurt am Main. They belong to a larger group of posted Romanian workers employed at a slaughterhouse in Hessen. The terms set forth in their contracts with the posting companies tell quite a story: Monthly base wages for a 40-hour work week amount to 850 Romanian lei, or roughly 180 EUR. In addition, they received expense allowances which are exempt from taxes and social security contributions. The fact that a minimum wage which also applies to posted workers was set for the meat-processing industry months ago has apparently not filtered down to this company. The low wages are reduced even further by deductions for accommodations. Numerous Romanian and Hungarian service contractors have been operating on the basis of this business model for many years. And German slaughterhouses are profiting from it. Service contracts awarded to foreign firms
enable them to acquire cheap, easily disposable workers for whom they must assume no responsibility whatsoever. Several workers said that they had been working as posted employees in Germany for over ten years. As far as they knew, no social security contributions had been paid for them in Germany. That is possible because such workers are officially posted for a maximum of two years, after which their social security contributions must be paid in Germany. In order to circumvent this requirement, their contracts are suspended for two months and then replaced with new contracts. In this way, the posting process can begin again from the start, and their contributions remain payable in Romania. Another issue of concern to this group of workers, and one which regularly causes headaches for Fair Mobility advisors, is the matter of insufficiently transparent wage statements. These men and women presented a slip of paper measuring ten by ten centimetres on which only very few items were
listed – their net Romanian wage, deductions for insurance, advance payments and the remaining wages disbursed in Germany. The companies in question ignore the fact that applicable Romanian regulations regarding minimum information to be provided on wage and salary statements also require a record of paid holidays and days of sick leave. But as the people in the group pointed out, they are not eligible for paid holidays or paid sick leave anyway. Although they can take occasional days off to rest or recover from illness, they receive no pay for such periods of absence. Anyone taken ill for an extended period would be dismissed with no option but to return to Romania. The workers have kept quiet about these matters until now. Letitia Matarea-Türk Fair Mobility, Frankfurt am Main
2 Project Fair Mobility www.faire-mobilitaet.de
February 2015 Foreign nursing personnel, language courses and enslavement contracts Since April of last year, there has been a rapid increase in the number of enquiries from nursing personnel, especially from Spain, Poland and Bulgaria, who find themselves confronted with extremely questionable contractual agreements following their recruitment by clinics and other institutions. After arriving in Germany, they are enrolled in language courses that last from three to six months. This practice is in accordance with a directive which specifies that anyone seeking employment as a nurse in Germany must show evidence of B2-equivalent German language skills. The language courses are ordinarily organized by the German firms and funded by the European Social Fund. These companies exempt their employees from duty for a portion of the period spent in language training (usually for the first three months). For the remainder of the training period – until they have passed the qualifying exam – they are assigned to duty as unskilled nurses’ aides. In order to protect their investments and prevent these nursing personnel from quitting prematurely, these firms require these women to sign supplementary contracts which require them to remain in the employ of the company
for a certain period of time – three years in most cases. Those who choose to leave sooner are obliged to reimburse their employer for the costs incurred in exempting them from duty during the training period. These costs amount to between 6,000 and 10,000 EUR. All things considered, these firms profit from the training completed by nursing personnel abroad, pass the costs of qualifying them in accordance with the requirements of the German market to the nurses and thereby limit their free choice of employer. Fear of having to repay these costs often discourages these colleagues from terminating their employment contracts, even when they feel that their contracts are extremely unfair and burdensome. Yet there are even worse cases on record. In mid-January, several Bulgarian nurses from Sofia registered complaints with Fair Mobility. They stated that they had signed employment contracts and supplemental contracts with the Bulgarian branch of the German contracting agency PMK Medical Care GmbH. The terms of these contracts required them to complete a three-month course in German, to pass a test affirming B2-level language skills in Ger-
many and then to work as temps for PMK Medical Care GmbH for a minimum of one year. The fees for the language course amount to 1,800 EUR and are to be deducted from the first months wage payments. In the event that these women choose to terminate their contracts with the agency within the specified one-year period, they will be obliged to pay a contract penalty of 5,000 EUR. An additional amount of 3,000 EUR is payable if the terms of these contracts are disclosed to third parties. It should be obvious even to the responsible representatives of PMK Medical Care GmbH that B2-level language skills cannot be acquired in a three-month course. The model is a profitable one. The contracting agency can offer well-trained nurses on loan as cheap unskilled workers, as they are ineligible for employment as qualified nurses unless they have passed the language test. The agency has little reason to worry about complaints regarding poor working conditions, since the fear of having to pay contract penalties is much too great. Vladimir Bogoeski, Dr. Sylwia Timm Fair Mobility, Berlin
Advisory centres at full capacity – advice-seekers come from all industries The demand for advisory services provided by Fair Mobility was persistently strong in 2014. The six advisory centres and their eleven advisors provided assistance to 5,500 people in 2,729 cases last year. These figures represent an increase of 50 per cent over the preceding year. At several advisory centres, this equates to between 60 and 80 new contacts per month – in addition to pending cases. Many of those seeking assistance (approx. 35 per cent) seek advice on wage issues. Other frequently asked questions relate to employment and service contracts or notices of termination. The number of enquiries regarding employment and service contracts, in particular, rose significantly from 2013 to 2014. In 2013, only eight per cent of all cases involved such contract issues. The figure rose to about 14 per cent in 2014. Advice-seekers continue to come from many different industries. Roughly one-fifth are from the construction industry. People employed as households aides, as nursing personnel or in the logistics industry account for about 15
Home countries of Gastronomy 7% Gardening and landscaping/ agriculture 3%
Miscellaneous 15%
Transport/ logistics/ warehousing 16%
Meat processing 5%
per cent each. Many individuals employed in the commercial cleaning sector, the metal-processing and electrical industries or gastronomy also frequently seek assistance at the advisory centres. Poland remains the leading country of origin, and accounts for 55 per cent of all advice-seekers. The percentage of Bulgarian advice-seekers declined from 30 per cent in 2013 to 16.5 per cent in 2014. Enquiries from Romanian citizens also declined from the pre-
Construction 20%
advice seekers by sector, 2014
Commercialcleaning 10%
Household aid nursing 14%
Metal/ electrical industry 10%
vious year and accounted for roughly seven per cent in 2014. The proportional share of enquiries from Croatia (roughly eight per cent in 2014) and Hungary (about ten percent in 2014) rose significantly. In nearly all instances, those seeking assistance were helped, in some cases through cooperation with other offices. All in all, the volume of cases processed by the advisory centres now exceeds their current capacities. 3 Project Fair Mobility www.faire-mobilitaet.de
February 2015
Fair mobility – actively promoting free movement for workers in a social and fair manner
A transnational program for combatting exploitation mobile workers who come to Germany. The newly established contacts between Fair Mobility advisors and the new contact centres in Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria have already proven beneficial in actual practice. In a number of cases, workers have been helped through this transnational cooperation. The goal of everyone involved is to keep this cooperation alive beyond the final conference in Sofia in late February.
Projektpartner:
Telefon (+359) 024 01 04 42 nbotevska@citub.ne t Maq Gramovs ka Telefon (+359 ) 024 01 04 78 mgramovska@citub. net
Beratungsstelle
Telefon (+40) 03 12 38 86 dan@fgs.ro
Beratungsstelle Faire Mobilität bei CITUB (KNSB) in Sofia, Bulgarien Nelly Botevska
Faire Mobilität
Telefon (+49) 0151/22 21 64 38 empen.bfw@dgb.de
Telefon (+49) 089/51 39 90 18 nadia.kluge@bfw.eu .com
Jochen Empen
Nadia Kluge
Hamburg
München
Faire Mobilität
Beratungsstelle Faire Mobilität
Beratungsstelle Faire Mobilität bei FGS Familia in Bukarest, Rumänie n Dan Cristescu Beratungsstelle Faire Mobilität bei ZSSS in Ljubljana , Slowenien Ana Jakopič t durch: Telefon (+386) Geförder 031 68 96 21 Ana.Jakopic@sindika t-zsss.si
t gsstellen ility.eu Mobilitä Faire Beratun labour-mob gsstelle airBeratun www.f t t/Main Mobilitä Frankfur area -Türk Faire Mat 75 67 gsstelle Letitia /27 29 069 Beratun (+49) t nd Telefon u.de Mobilitä Dortmu erk@igba Faire 82 s Sepsi letitia.tu 50 79 n gsstelle Szabolc 66 0231/54 Zambro Beratun 29 75 (+49) m Gosia 069 /27 Telefon fw.eu.co u.de (+49) Berlin m sepsi@b Telefon on@igba 37 ia Tim t szabolcs. 01 64 ta.zambr leitung Dr. Sylw 57 Albrech 030 /21 Projekt malgorza 28 18 n (+49) Stefanie 40 ue Joh 0151/12 Telefon de 24 05 (+49) Dominiq eu.com m@dgb. t 030 /21 Beratungsstellen Telefon ht@bfw. (+49) ki sylwia.tim Mobilitä fon für lbrec Beschä Tele Faire Bogoes 96 ftigte stefanie.a aus Mittel- und enien 23 29 www.fair-labour-mob @dgb.de gsstelle Vladimir a, Slow Osteuropa 030/21 John.Bfw Beratun ility.eu oeski (+49) Ljubljan e Bog in 96 t S Telefon i@dgb.d 23 29 Mobilitä Vladimir bei ZSS bogoesk 030/21 Faire pič (+49) 21 vladimir. gsstelle gb.de 68 96 Telefon Ana Jako i@d 031 Beratun Bogoesk .si (+386) t g Vladimir. Telefon ikat-zsss Mobilitä Hambur pic@sind Faire 38 Empen Ana.Jako 21 64 t bei gsstelle Jochen 0151/22 Beratun Mobilitä (+49) Faire n änien Telefon de gsstelle t, Rum Münche fw@dgb. Beratun Bukares 18 Projektleitung Kluge empen.b bei 39 90 ilia in Nadia ilität 089 /51 Mob FGS Fam Beratungsstelle Dominique John (+49) Faire Faire Mobilität om tescu arien Telefon gsstelle 38 86 bfw.eu.c Beratungsstelle Dan Cris a, Bulg Berlin Telefon (+49) 030/21 03 12 Beratun Faire Mobilität a.kluge@ in Sofi (+40) 24 nadi 05 40 t Beratungsstelle (KNSB) Dortmund Telefon Dr. Sylwia Timm John.Bfw@dgb.de Faire Mobilität Mobilitä CITUB o ka Faire Frankfurt /Main Botevs dan@fgs.r 04 42 Telefon (+49) 030/21 gsstelle Nelly 024 01 01 64 37 Beratun Letitia Matarea (+359) sylwia.timm@dgb.de rt -Türk Telefon citub.net Stuttga pter Telefon (+49) 069/27 ka@ 35 ota Kem nbotevs 29 75 67 09 36 Dr. Dor movska 78 0711/12 letitia.tuerk@igbau.d (+49) om Maq Gra 9 ) 024 01 04 e Telefon bfw.eu.c (+35 Gosia Zambron mpter@ Telefon ub.net dorota.ke kovic vska@cit 36 a Fran mgramo 09 36 Katarin 0711/12 (+49) u.com Telefon c@bfw.e artner: .frankovi Projektp katarina Beratungsstelle
Vladimir Bogoeski Telefon (+49) 030/21 23 29 96 Vladimir.Bogoeski@ dgb.de
Vladimir Bogoeski Telefon (+49) 030/21 23 29 96 vladimir.bogoeski@d gb.de
Szabolcs Sepsi Telefon (+49) 0231/54 50 79 82 szabolcs.sepsi@bfw.e u.com Stefanie Albrecht Telefon (+49) 0151/12 28 18 57 stefanie.albrecht@bf w.eu.com
Telefon (+49) 069/27 29 75 66 malgorzata.zambron @igbau.de
ftigt – Sie haben
äftigte
aus Mi
ttel- un
Henriette-H
für Besch
stand,
Bundesvor
d Osteu
ropa
erz-Platz 8 Berlin
2, 1017
4
Stuttgart
Berlin
Entsandt beschä
, DGB-
financed by:
Dr. Dorota Kempter Telefon (+49) 0711/12 09 36 35 dorota.kempter@bfw. eu.com Katarina Frankovi c Telefon (+49) 0711/12 09 36 36 katarina.frankovic@b fw.eu.com
z-Platz 2, 10178
vorstand, Henriette-Her
Buntenbach, DGB-Bundes
bility Project
Buntenbach
The Fair Mobility project must be extended Fair Mobility is scheduled to end in October 2015. The participating project sponsors have agreed to apply for a 30 -month extension on the basis of the current cooperative agreement as soon as possible. The strong demand for advisory services cannot be met by the advisory centres funded by states and local communities in Germany alone. The activities of the states and the federal government must be more effectively coordinated in the long term. A federal-state programme should be developed for this purpose. At the same time, the federal government must implement the EU Directive on measures facilitating the
Gefördert durch:
V.i.S.d.P.: Annelie
European Fair Mo
Annelie
Workshop in Berlin 2014
V.i.S.d.P.:
The European Fair Mobility Network project ends in March/April 2015. The one-year project is sponsored by Arbeit und Leben Berlin in cooperation with other partners, including the DGB Executive Committee and the Hans-Böckler Foundation. Within the context of this preliminary measure initiated by the EU Commission, Fair Mobility and its partner trade unions, KNSB/CITUB in Bulgaria, ZSSS in Slovenia and FGS-Familia in Romania, pursue several concrete goals: the establishment of a contact centres for mobile workers in the three partner countries, the training of advisors in matters of German labour law assigned to these centres and the development of informative materials in multiple languages for the workers in question. A multilingual website from which these and other informative materials can be downloaded was activated at the beginning of the year (www.fair-labour-mobility.eu). Flyers containing specific recommendations for affected workers as well as contact information for all project partners are distributed at the affiliated advisory centres and serve as models for other informative materials. The purpose of these measures is to offer more effective protection against exploitation for
The Fair Mobility project supports mobile workers from Central and Eastern European EU Member States in asserting their rights to fair wages and working conditions. Mobile workers can obtain advice and guidance on labour and social issues in their native languages at the six advisory centres in Berlin, Hamburg, Dortmund, Stuttgart, Frankfurt am Main and Munich. Informative materials have been prepared in multiple languages. Educational materials and seminars designed to heighten awareness of the situation facing mobile workers are offered as well. An Advisory Council composed of representatives of trade unions in Germany, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria as well as the German and Polish Labour Ministries has been established for the project. Political responsibility for the project lies in the hands of the Executive Committee of the DGB. Other project partners are the bfw – Unternehmen für Bildung, the European Migrant Workers Union, Project Consult GmbH (PCG) and the DGB Bildungswerk Bund.
exercise of rights and the Posting of Workers Directives within the next two years. Both directives provide, among other things, that workers who come from other EU Member States must be better informed about their rights, and that contact centres be established for that purpose. It is to be hoped that the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) will take the experience of Fair Mobility into consideration in the development of concepts, and build on the foundation established through this project.
n Fa
Europea
ur zum
ig – n
ständ
Selbst
n Fair
roject
ility P ir Mob
e? e Recht rhältnis! Sie ihr Kennen ihr Arbeitsve Sie Prüfen
Europea
Mobility
Project
European Fair Mobility
Project
Rechte!
Bun venit Добре дошли Dobrodošli Welc ome Willkommen
?
Schein
е дошли e m nit Добр Bun ve odošli Welco Dobr mmen Willko
Publishing data Published by: Projekt Faire Mobilität DGB, Keithstr. 1 – 3, 10787 Berlin Tel.: 030/21 24 05 41 mobilitaet@dgb.de Editorial Board: Dominique John, Karolin Nedelmann, Jochen Empen, Volker Roßocha, Charlotte Pscheidl Typesetting/Graphic design: Julika Matthess Responsible in accordance with press law: Annelie Buntenbach Berlin, February 2015