varicose veins, back pain, numbness in the hands due to the cold. Seven years in the Band in Germany’s biggest Battle have left traces in the case of Lukasz Kowalski, who in reality is different. “The machines are running all the time, it is loud in the hall, and cold,” says the 37-year-old father of a family, the circumstances.
the start of work for him in Tönnies: at three in the morning. The production in Rheda-Wiedenbrück is stopped after the Corona mass outbreak with more than 1550 Infected.
Also, Kowalski is in quarantine. He, his wife and daughter tested positive for woman and child complaints. Since Tuesday is a Lockdown, the state of North Rhine meets the whole of the district of Gütersloh, with its 370,000 inhabitants-Westphalia to put on the brakes.
Kowalski is burned out, disillusioned. A week ago he notified the subcontractor, with whom he has a temporary work contract, his family’s unique Corona show symptoms. “If I have no proof that I have Corona, should I still go to work, have told me.” The contract workers from Poland went to the layer. “I thought that I would otherwise dismiss.” To use it came – it was the day had to suspend the Tönnies production.
“Because
“My hard work is something terribly wrong”,” says Kowalski. “I work Standing up, always with the knife, cut pieces from the meat.” He’ll be up to 200 working hours in a month, but only a maximum of 1500 Euro net. “There is something terribly wrong”, writes the Polish-speaking Caritas-social worker Hanna’s helmet orig. “People often work ten, twelve hours. Many still need services from the Job Center.“ Helmet orig many contract advises workers in the district of Gütersloh.
Some of the help send desperately to your pay slips. The contract employees cut meat in Tönnies, have completed their contracts but with one of the many sub-contractors. Once you get to 200 hours, 1191 net. Another pay slip shows 1409 Euro below-the-line for 214 hours of work. “This is an intolerable situation. Dealing with the staff is very disrespectful. Some of us have to beg for holidays,” she says, and adds: “Overtime will not be paid. The Cleaning of the workplace is not considered work time.“
The Corona-scandal in the case of Tönnies has also the working and living conditions of many from Romania, Poland and Bulgaria-born workers in the spotlight. The wealth of corporations like Tönnies based “on maximum exploitation”, says Volker Bruges, jürgen, Caritas Board of Directors, in the district of Gütersloh. “The System of work contracts brings misery over the people.” And he adds: “Some workers feel it is only months or a few years. But it is poverty migrants from South-Eastern Europe to always come. Increasingly, there are strokes of educated people from the country where there is no work, which will then be pressed here.“
