Fifty Romanian workers at a construction site Nohfelden, near the Luxembourgish border, started a protest over working conditions approaching slavery. Their employer, a subcontractor involved in the building of a holiday village, has not paid the workers in time. They work up to 170 hours per month, do not get regular breaks and sleep with fifteen people in the same room. The workers have contacted both media outlets and the local branches of the building trade union IG Bau. A spokesperson of IG Bau has reacted outraged at information on the working conditions. The union took up immediate action and negotiations with the main contractor led to compensation pay. According to the main contractor the workers’ wages were paid to the subcontractors but never transferred to the workers. Workers will be directly engaged as of 1 April and the service contracts with the subcontractor are dissolved.
English: http://www.ituc-csi.org/romanian-workers-deceived-and?lang=en
German: http://www.saarbruecker-zeitung.de/aufmacher/Bostalsee-Skandal-Nohfelden ...
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.