We read about it in various media and watch the news on television in shock. But that labour exploitation, even forced labour, is happening right in front of our eyes, and that we personally may even be the beneficiaries, that is what is really shocking.
Austria: The case of S.H.G.
The facility management company S.H.G., based in Upper Austria, exploited 233 temporary workers. The company owners, an Austrian woman and a German citizen, were charged with organised bogus self-employment, exploitation and alleged human trafficking.
Most of the workers were Iraqi asylum seekers with no knowledge of German, who were placed with well-known companies, petrol stations and security firms throughout Austria.
The asylum seekers had to obtain business licences themselves and insure themselves as commercially self-employed persons in order to then submit invoices to the S.H.G.. However, they were bound by instructions in the respective companies and worked there as if they were employees – but for low wages. In addition, they had to work unpaid overtime in shifts of up to 17 hours without rest periods. If they fell ill or wanted to take a holiday, workers were threatened with termination.
In return, they received 9.50 euros gross per hour, far below the collective agreement. Transport to the workplaces and accommodation had to be paid extra. It was worth it for the clients: they only paid between 14.50 and 16.50 euros, which is far below the standard hourly rates in the industry. And S.H.G. took the difference.
The bad business was exposed after several victims turned to the contact point for trade union support for undocumented workers (UNDOK). However, this was not the end of the exploitative model: S.H.G. subsequently went bankrupt – so the Insolvency Remuneration Fund, financed by employers’ welfare state contributions, took over the outstanding remuneration claims for at least six months.
Ludwig Dvořák from the Vienna Chamber of Labour sees this as a system. After the labour force has been exploited, the general public has to pay for it, while employers bear no risk. This is made possible by a loophole in the Austrian Labour Leasing Act.
Migrants and asylum seekers form a vulnerable group for labour exploiters, as they have little chance of participating in the regular labour market, have little or no knowledge of German and are often socially isolated. In addition, the regulations for temporary workers with work contracts with subcontractors or low-wage systems such as piecework wages leave plenty of room for exploitation.
The two other cases show that the Covid-19 pandemic also had positive side effects. This is because they were publicised due to mass infections.
Germany: the Tönnies scandal
During the coronavirus crisis, the meat industry, in particular the major German company Tönnies, unintentionally came into the spotlight. Desolate hygienic conditions, mouldy mass accommodation, forced labour despite illnesses or injuries and 60-hour or more working weeks. In addition, the workers also had to pay overpriced prices for their accommodation and for travelling to the factory, and money was even deducted for work tools. One example reports 320 euros for a bed in a run-down shared room plus 100 euros deducted from wages for travelling to work.
Due to a mass Covid-19 outbreak with over 1,500 people falling ill, production at the Rheda-Wiedenbrück plant had to be halted and the conditions finally came to public attention. Caritas employee Konstantin Pramatarski explains: ‘People often don’t speak German and are at the mercy of the companies. A father who had to take his daughter to the emergency doctor due to breathing difficulties was thrown out because he was absent from work for a day. A family of six had to share a room and a bed for months – in affluent Germany.’
Shortly after the abuses became known, the Labour Protection Control Act came into effect in Germany. Author Sascha Lübbe has researched the exploitation of migrant workers: ‘Thanks to the Labour Protection Control Act, the workers are now permanently employed, but there is still exploitation. The law only applies to the core area of work such as slaughtering, cutting and processing the meat. However, nothing has changed for all other work, such as cleaning. The workers can continue to be employed by subcontractors and thus exploited.
Why is no one denouncing the situation? The people are too intimidated, as they would then not only be unemployed, but also on the street in a foreign country without accommodation. If they are not from an EU member state, they could even be deported.
Apart from this, many of the labour migrants come from the social fringes of their home country, are used to working hard for even less pay, are often illiterate and do not know what rights they have.
Germany: Domestic fruit and vegetables
Around 300,000 seasonal workers, mainly from Central and Eastern Europe, work in German agriculture every year, harvesting asparagus, strawberries and cucumbers, among other things. Without them, cultivation and harvesting would not be possible. And to such an extent that migrant labour was even classified as essential during the Covid-19 pandemic. Airlifts were set up to fly in tens of thousands of people, the maximum daily working hours were extended and rest periods were shortened. Due to a lack of hygiene measures and confined spaces, there were mass infections here, which brought the working conditions of seasonal workers to the headlines.
In contrast to other sectors, seasonal workers are not employed by subcontractors but directly by the farmers. Temporary work or bogus self-employment are uncommon in seasonal work, as the non-wage labour costs are very low due to the ‘short-term employment’.
People were recruited via private agents or adverts on the internet, often with false promises. For example, a vegetable farm in Brandenburg promised 8 to 10 hours of work a day, two hot meals for six euros and accommodation in a hotel. The reality was very different. The workers had to live in mouldy and often unheated shared rooms, with four showers for 500 people. It was often impossible to do laundry or secure personal valuables. Food was served directly on the field, cold, and without being able to wash their hands beforehand. However, 600 euros per month was deducted from the workers’ wages.
This wage is usually paid in the form of piecework wages, e.g. 70 cents per kilo of hand-picked asparagus – which is less than the minimum wage. Sometimes even ‘quality wages’ are paid, meaning that money is only paid for beautiful, saleable asparagus. This deprives the workers of the opportunity to help check that their produce is weighed fairly. Incidentally, the selling price at the start of the 2024 season was 15-18 euros per kilo of asparagus.
Here, too, the fact that the workers usually do not speak German and know nothing about minimum wage or German labour law was exploited. In addition, most of them are unable to assess the proportionality of the wages paid or the deductions.
The work pressure in agriculture is naturally also dependent on the weather, and there are also exceptions for seasonal work. As a result, the number of hours worked in extreme heat or frost is sometimes very high and workers are not adequately protected.
In 2014, this went so far that a 32-year-old Romanian died of heatstroke while working. The farmer is said to have denied him breaks and drinks despite the high temperatures and hard labour.
Covid-19 also claimed a victim among the seasonal workers: a 57-year-old Romanian died in his accommodation in 2020 as a result of the infection.
Due to the quarantine regulations during the pandemic, the workers were even more isolated than they already were in the mostly remote locations of the farms – they were often not allowed to leave the premises but had to work. If they had to pay for board and lodging, they were even forced to work.
‘The boss gave us a little money every week to buy food. We would only receive our wages when we left. On the last day, I got my payslip and it said that I would receive 1,980 euros for 385 hours over two months. The coach home was already waiting and there was a long queue behind me. I just wanted to get home. In the end, I took my money and got on the bus.’
Withholding wages or paying advances, for example for food, is a concrete sign of labour exploitation and even coercion in the employment relationship. If payment is only made shortly before departure, there is no time to negotiate insufficient wages or excessive deductions or to take legal action.
Often, workers’ identity documents are even taken away from them under various pretexts until they leave. There are also reports of constant surveillance of the farms by security guards and surveillance cameras.
All of this is happening in the centre of Germany. For asparagus and strawberries that are sold at high prices to gullible consumers who want to support domestic production.
Translated by Anna Smith
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