Worker union’s campaign leads to passage of law vs subcontracting in Germany’s pandemic-hit meat industry

“Now, finally, there is an end to sub-sub-subcontracting. The Occupational Safety and Health Control Act is a good first step and a fresh start toward a future without scandal and exploitation in the meat industry,” Guido Zeitler vice president of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF), and president of Gewerkschaft Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten (NGG) said in a recent statement.

“After years of campaigning, the IUF-affiliated NGG has succeeded in passing a new law through the German parliament, which will end subcontracting in the meat sector, ” the IUF said in the same statement posted on its website.

The IUF, a member of the Global Network for the Right to Food and Nutrition, is an international federation of trade unions based in Geneva, Switzerland. It represents workers in agriculture and plantations; the processing and manufacture of food and beverages; hotels restaurants tourism and catering services; and all stages of tobacco processing.

The Food, Beverages and Catering Union or NGG is a trade union in Germany and an affiliate of IUF. It is among the eight industrial affiliates of the German Confederation of Trade Unions.

Covid-19 exposes dire working conditions in Germany's meat sector

Coronavirus outbreaks in Germany's slaughterhouses and meat processing plants had put a spotlight on the dire working conditions of the mostly migrant laborers in the industry that increased pressure for the government to address the problem via stricter labor rules.

In a report published on Sept. 1, 2020, the European Federation of Trade Unions in the Food, Agriculture and Tourism sectors (EFFAT) said Germany, which is Europe’s biggest meat producer, had so far been ‘’the European country with the most cases of workers in the meat sector testing positive for Covid-19.’’

The same report noted that more than 1,550 slaughterhouse workers in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, a town in North Rhine-Westphalia state, tested positive for Covid-19 in June 2020.

In May 2020, a pandemic outbreak also took place in another slaughterhouse in northwestern Germany‘s Coesfeld district, which infected at least 260 workers. In the same month, 92 other workers at an abattoir in Lower Saxony state were reported to have been infected by the coronavirus.

In April, a similar outbreak involving around 200 workers occurred at a meat processing plant in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg.

Subcontracting among reasons why working conditions are so poor 

In its report, EFFAT said that according NGG, ‘’the challenging working, housing and employment conditions of a vast proportion of meat workers have contributed to the spread of the virus in meat processing plants.’’

‘’One of the main reasons why working conditions are so poor is the subcontracting system that for almost twenty years has been a major cause of social dumping within the sector in Germany but also across Europe,’’ it noted.

Citizens from Central and Eastern Europe, who work in meat plants in Western European countries, are usually hired by labour intermediaries, who charge them a recruiting fee plus the travel costs to reach their country of destination, according to EFFAT. 

‘’Many of these workers are then employed by temporary work agencies or through abusive subcontracting practices allowing employers to escape liability. In some countries, subcontractors operate as bogus cooperatives with workers sometimes employed as self-employed,‘’ it said. 

EFFAT said the following perilous working conditions being endured by meat workers in Germany made them vulnerable to Covid-19.

• Working day of up to 16 hours, six days per week
• Income that is on average 40% to 50% less than what meat workers directly employed by meat companies receive
• Living in overcrowded flats with shared bathrooms and with up to five or six people in one dormitory
• Work contracts that are temporary and extremely high job insecurity 

IUF said the Occupational Safety and Health Control Act  was an “important win“ that came after “rights abuses as well as the low pay and poor work conditions suffered by migrant workers were exposed through the COVID-19 pandemic.“

It said  the law would take effect next year with the following main provisions:

• Subcontracting in the meat sector will be prohibited starting January 1, 2021
• Companies may employ temporary workers up to a maximum of 8% as long as this is regulated through a collective bargaining agreement
• Beginning April 1, 2021, the maximum time a worker can be a temporary employee is 4 months
• Temporary and permanent employees must receive equal pay and equal treatment
• Working time must be recorded digitally with fines for working time fraud doubling to 30,000 EUR
• Minimum standards are set for workers’ accommodations

In an earlier statement, NGG’s Guido Zeitler said ‘’the ban on work contracts and temporary agency work is a milestone and paves the way for a real start in the meat industry.’’

‘’Finally, the meat companies must take responsibility and can no longer hide behind dubious subcontractors with flimsy excuses – for which the NGG union and many others have fought for a long time,’’ he added.