The labour law initiative aktion ./. arbeitsunrecht has published a press release on working conditions in the meat industry:
Suspicion of sham work contracts + exorbitant rents: What are prosecution, main customs office and labour ministries doing?
[…] In the course of the corona crisis, the media are once again reporting increasingly unpleasant facts. The legal core of the exploitation business are the so-called work contracts between slaughterhouse operators and so-called work contractors, who in turn contract the workers, most of whom come from Romania and Bulgaria.
The exploitation via work contracts is regularly criticised – but not sufficiently questioned. The legal basis of the regulations governing contracts for work is more than shaky.
Sham contracts: Organized deception of the authorities through illegal temporary employment agency work?
According to our research, everything speaks for the fact that in reality these are not contracts for work at all, but in fact employee supply contracts (i.e. concealed temporary work or sham contracts for work). This would have far-reaching consequences, since to our knowledge none of the contractors has permission to supply temporary workers. We would therefore be dealing with a criminal system that harms both the workers and – by evading social security contributions and taxes – the community. […]
Source:
12.05.2020, Press release by aktion ./. arbeitsunrecht: Conditions in the meat industry: work contracts or illegal temporary employment agency work?
Further information:
aktion./.arbeitsunrecht is a trade-union labour law initiative which campaigns for employees in the retail trade, the food industry and many other sectors. It provides information about companies hostile to works councils, supports works councils and trade unionists and also called for a day of action against the meat company Tönnies in 2019. Further information is available at: www.aktion.arbeitsunrecht.de