"Exploitation in German slaughterhouses is systematic and tolerated"

"On the one hand there are the powerful associations of the pork industrialists with excellent contacts in regional and federal politics. On the other hand there are the Romanians and Bulgarians, who here in Germany have a decidedly less influential lobby than that of the pigs that slaughter "writes Manfred Götzke on DLF commenting on the wave of infections from Covid-19 which in the German slaughterhouses has affected thousands of migrant workers from Eastern Europe. From Deutschlandfkunk.de

What has been going on in German slaughterhouses has never really been a secret: and the real scandal in the meat scandal is that for years almost nobody has ever cared about it.

I repeat it again with the utmost clarity: for years, tens of thousands of Eastern Europeans have been exploited in ways that resemble a form of modern slavery. They go into debt to come to Germany, they pay brokerage costs to some rather dubious German companies and then work to exhaustion in the German slaughterhouses.

Ten or twelve hours a day, six days a week, and then having to sleep in moldy hovels, for which they must also deduct several hundred euros of "rent" from the salary to be paid to the subcontractor.

Exploitation is systematic and tolerated

Workers often get the statutory minimum wage only on paper, overtime is not paid, there are deductions for work clothes and shoes and other things that are actually not even provided. The minimum wage set by law of 9.35 euros per hour for very hard physical work? A little too much. In the end they are only Romanians, at home they would take even less.

Here we are not talking about a couple of black sheep in the sector: because this exploitation is systematic and is tolerated by politics - if not actually wanted. Because it is extremely easy for the meat industry to outsource the exploitation to a group of somewhat dubious subcontractors.

Romanians and Bulgarians don't have a lobby

Organized and politically tolerated exploitation has a precise name: work contracts. Instead of directly employing workers, paying them adequately and employing them according to German labor law, almost all large slaughterhouses assign work contracts to subcontractors who cheat on wages, and when they can cheat their employees.

All this could be easily prevented by law simply by prohibiting the application of work contracts for the company's core activities. Why has it never happened up to now? Lobbying.

On the one hand there are the associations of the meat industry which are very powerful and with excellent contacts in regional and federal politics. On the other hand, there are Romanians and Bulgarians, who here in Germany have a decidedly less powerful lobby than that of pigs who slaughter.

Once again nothing will change

The fact that indignation is so great now has little to do with any form of empathy for workers. Due to Coronavirus infections registered in workers' barracks, some districts will simply have to wait a little longer before witnessing the long-awaited reopenings. It's mostly about personal interest.

Although NRW Laumann (CDU) labor minister once again claims to have lost patience with the meat industry. Although the Bundestag has once again discussed the serious social problem. I fear that in the end nothing will change: the Germans simply don't give a damn about Romanians