Protest about outstanding wages on April 19 in Göttingen
Photo: FAU Goettingen
“People who are new to Germany are exploited. Working conditions have to change.« That’s what Abdi Ismail says. The 27-year-old is fighting with 23 of his former colleagues, most of whom come from Eritrea and Somalia, for wages that they say have not yet been paid. Together they worked as warehouse clerks for DHL in Staufenberg near Kassel. However, not as an employee directly at the parent company of Deutsche Post AG, but for a spin-off subcontractor: DHL Home Delivery GmbH. However, they were not directly employed there. They signed the employment contract with WorKings GmbH – a temporary employment agency that hired out the workers to DHL Home Delivery via another subcontractor, as the syndicalist FAU Göttingen union explained to »nd.Der Tag«. She represents the workers in enforcing their demands.
A press spokeswoman for the FAU Göttingen told the “nd” that it was about 100,000 euros in total, which was raised as a claim against the hiring company WorKings. The enforcement notices have already been received for two dunning procedures. In the case of Abdi Ismail, on the other hand, WorKings lodged an objection, which is why litigation is now taking place at the Goettingen Labor Court. On April 19, however, WorKings had the conciliation hearing, which was scheduled for the second time, postponed. A third date is now scheduled for July 7th.
Obtaining a statement from the company is difficult: On Monday, a spokeswoman for WorKings contacted »nd.Der Tag«, asked for the number of the union and explained that the allegations were to be cleared up. A day later, the editors received another call, this time from lawyer Thomas Karst, who announced that he was mandated in the Ismail case. Further inquiries at the company WorKings should be avoided. However, he himself cannot provide any information as he has only just taken over the mandate from WorKings. Thomas Karst’s law firm is a member of several employers’ interest groups in temporary work.
It was also difficult for Abdi Ismail to get in touch with his employer after starting work. The communication was via Whatsapp group chat. WorKings kept asking if he could bring along friends who worked well. “I came to Germany from Ethiopia in 2014, but I’m actually Somali.” He started an apprenticeship, but it was too difficult for him at the time due to the language barrier. Since then he has worked for many temporary employment agencies. “I worked four times at DHL for four different temporary employment agencies, in three different warehouses at the Staufenberg site,” says Ismail.
The Göttingen sociologist Peter Birke, who has researched similar working conditions in the meat industry, says: “After their arrival, refugees often only have access to certain labor market segments.” Initially, adverse working conditions are accepted in order to progress. “But often these are closed areas and you can’t go any further,” says Birke.
The demands made by Ismail and his colleagues stem from a discrepancy between the wages that their employment contracts stipulated and what they received. The workers rely on handwritten working hours. They are denied access to the working time recording carried out by WorKings. Apart from that, the work was good, say those affected. However, they would have had to work longer and earned less than their colleagues employed directly by DHL.
Possibly this would also result in further wage claims: As an employment lawyer at the University of Bremen, Professor Wolfgang Däubler dealt intensively with temporary work. According to him, the following applies to the use of temporary work: the same wage for the same work or equal pay. Däubler says: “This can be deviated from by means of a collective agreement, provided that there is appropriate compensation in other areas such as working hours or vacation.” Collective agreements in the temporary work sector do not provide for such compensation. Rather, it would make temporary workers worse off. “If you find that a collective agreement does not contain any compensation, this contradicts the principle of equal pay.” You can then demand the same remuneration as the regular employees, says Däubler.
“nd” had not received a detailed answer from the Deutsche Post DHL Group by the time of going to press, but the case will of course be examined immediately. Meanwhile, Peter Birke says: »Certain corporations with a legal aura systematically use small or large temporary employment agencies, and when something happens, people complain or the press writes, then it is often said: ›We didn’t know.‹ And then the contracts are often terminated.«
What is special in the present case is that those affected come together and articulate in an organized manner. At a rally last Wednesday, they made it clear that it was not just about systematic wage fraud, but also about racism. »We are being exploited to keep a system running that is based on maximum profit and is not limited to WorKings GmbH. DHL also benefits from the conscious use of opaque subcontractors,” said a statement read there.