Money and fewer rights and not just in the Meat Industry. German labor minister who because higher now wants to change things or do chemical ban contract work and temporary work in the core activities of the Meat Industry group the pandemic called attention to contract worker exploitation in germany. The town of failed near fate of eating pork or 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 even book residents have made donations for the workers one of the organizers is an approach needed for over 70 years shes been fighting for the rights of Chinese Workers. Believe this much more than we ever expected it happened at very short notice. Yes all right dearest give kat packages in solidarity said the web to see that this anger isnt directed at them but it another visitor to theres something going on. Over 1000 packages have been collected containing food toiletries and even toys. Maina georgieva and stand a mammy hand off distribute donations and fare for many Chinese Workers live in shared apartments. Male often georgieva give support to Migrant Workers from Eastern Europe. They translate for us here. One bulgarian says hes been a meat cutter for attorney as for 18 months. Were going to offer you in for example if a veterinarian marks any spots on the pigs 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 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 where you all see one of the men refuses. You it must feel the other one takes our camera and goes off to take some pictures. Look like theyre all of europe 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. We receive we ask who the man asked. Is it that the boss. Yes it sure yeah yes and. He sends the workers back into the house would he ordered them to leave. The 5th of ah its a shame that happened. I need to avoid because some of them wanted to talk to us and to tell us what was happening to them. 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 attorney and innovative beaten book germanys largest slaughterhouse these pictures are from before the pandemic. In the ventilation system is said to be to blame the mass infection as well as insufficient physical distancing between employees. One of the workers talked about his experiences in a cell phone. As long as you felt healthy no one worries that you kept working. They only cared about the money. They didnt care if we died or not. Its likely the employees 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 were positive. Locals were also being tested. In june the district went into lockdown again then turned as working conditions became a focus of global attention through. A small village in the south of romania. Alberto gogu lives in this house with his family he literally pled from afraid of being a bloke in mid june. As a contract worker attorney has the experience of the corona Virus Outbreak he says as a goal distancing at work was impossible. Even and i cant teen it was too crowded dockery if it was he beats the same way and 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. 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 the. Thousands of people like alberto gogu work in turn yes 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 its 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 a to vidhan book 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. And. Thats the system being a bunch need it is fighting against when she heard about the poor working and Living Conditions that turn yes she decided to act. In 2013 she and others found. In a group to help those affected by exploitation of employment. She shows us articles about her work. As early as 2014 the group was pointing out contract workers often alarming Living Conditions. Of doubt the plan of the building with the top and use labels to show what wed see theyd be a bag 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 in order to. Shows us a cell phone video she made in a flash shared by turn u. S. 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 we found that now something would change when he left oh how sweet she said now something will happen. She could hardly believe what happened next. Clements turn yes 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 a tenuous later he wrote on facebook its good that sets positive standards and an industry that also has its share 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. So they wouldnt be here if i put them on a work contract and temporary workers. Are temporary workers. Either a lot of them have been with me for over 10 or 15 years the. Jobs from a cheap supermarket might cost 6 year as 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 going to use advertised as regional pork thats all very well but look the certification of all is one thats industrial pig farming where only the lowest requirements of Animal Welfare are filled. As president of the german torturers association dome and 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 they dont and you often have leave it at the Big Industrial places the prices at most 150 to 2 year or so in addition small butchers pay higher fees for disposing slaughterhouse waste and spend more on electricity because of Renewable Energy levies dorman isnt trying to match the industrial slaughterhouses prices but he does want more support from politicians 1. 00 and we dont want special treatment just equal treatment. Giant slaughterhouses arent just a threat to smaller competitors but often to their own workers too. Is the chairman of the Charity Coffee toss in the district of kuta slow 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. Turned this is not true to hope or to news makes most of the profit of course theres no question that theyve exploited the poverty gap professional gain. To news is they also profit because if they are a blatant violation. 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. 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 chinese holding a comment on the living and working conditions of contract workers in a written response the company didnt go into any detail but it 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 labor market flexibility. That was a key part of social democrat chancellor gerhard schroeders socalled agenda 2010. 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 stefan examines the causes of precarious employment he says his labor reforms also known as the hearts reforms weekend workers rights thats yeah 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. Order. Since the hearts reforms employers in Many Industries have used all legal 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. 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 how would even if we do these enormous giggling about young bush contract work releases the employer from all the obligations they normally have to their employees mention. Maybe by workers through a subcontractor the way theyd buy screws or other goods when this is big and close all the costs are personnel costs their material costs on time thats the cost. Of attorney a scandal brought yet another shock to the political establishment pushing lawmakers to ensure that workers from abroad who were paid fairly. Germanys upper house of the bonus pot 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. Of. Buddhist talk lawmaker beatin minigame has been fighting against precarious employment in the meat and Agricultural Industries for years if all that interests you thats thats demanding that contract work and temporary work be prohibitive when it comes to a business is cooler activity in this example companies have to take responsibility themselves and in italy are people we think its very important that safeguards a strengthened and that this one single safeguard mechanism for wages working hours to patients to house and safety house 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 just hot session. We prado 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. Almost this is why cant the government do anything about precarious employment in germany for. 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 our system of social partnership is a road in recent years with your fewer and fewer employers are employees associations 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 it was 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 done 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 who battles hile 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 a Meat IndustryEmployers Group the s. P. A 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 so not but the 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 s