Lithuanians recounted the bitter experience of working abroad: they fell asleep in jackets, after receiving 100 Eur they were thrown away

Planned to stay until the end of the summer, worked only for a week

Two Lithuanian friends, Livija and Laura, went abroad before starting their studies in the Netherlands to earn money and get to know the culture and people of the new country. In an acquaintance, they learned that a flower shop in Aalsmeer, near the Dutch capital, was hiring temporary workers. It turned out to be a great opportunity for them. The girls wrote via Facebook to a mediator looking for Lithuanian employees.

“An acquaintance of my friend had left and worked through a mediator. He said half the problem and we can try. We think that the place is close, 15 km from Amsterdam, everything is close, so it is worth trying ”, remembers Laura.

The girls came to the Netherlands in early January this year, got a job at Hoorn Bloommasters and planned to work here until the end of the summer, because they entered university in the summer, signed documents, etc. However, they only stayed here for a week and a half.

“What happened that week seems to be below everything. We could not believe that Lithuanians abroad could treat their compatriots abroad so badly. I believe that we are all people first and foremost and we must have humanity and feelings ”, Laura begins.

The girls were in full contact with Vaida, a mediator, who helped with paperwork and accommodation. At first, according to the girls, everything looked good, but with the arrival of the first minutes, communication with the mediator became difficult.

“He said they would take care of us, that we would work under a Dutch employment contract, but from the first minutes there was no decent communication with that woman, he was at the provincial level: ‘Don’t you like something? Some problems, not driving, “although all the fundamental questions were about wages, about living conditions,” says Laura.

Sleeping in jackets

First of all, as she says, the girls with 4 other Lithuanian workers settled in a room without hot water, kept at a temperature of only 10 degrees, so they had to sleep in a jacket. A little later, all the Lithuanians moved to commercial premises.

“We sent each other completely different photos of the house, taken from the Internet, it looked beautiful and we were very happy. When we arrived, everything turned upside down.

We slept in jackets for the first few days, but we thought that some more nuances were not fully resolved before we arrived, maybe everything would be resolved, but it was not. How many times have we told the mediator that she should take care of the staff, but there was a complete ignorance, cutting her off and telling her that this is our problem. We even hear such a taunt: “Are you cold? Maybe you go to church to pray, you have bad luck ”, teaches the former employee.

Until work – with empty bicycle tires

Living in a cold room is not all the problems that girls have faced. According to them, they had to bike through the tires before working in the rain: “The runners asked where you can buy a raincoat in this country, because the work is done at a temperature of 10 degrees, when you get wet it is Guaranteed to have a cold, if not worse.

We have heard that this is our business, we want, it does not work. The problems were so difficult to get down to business. To place of work: 5 km one way. Can you imagine how you had to travel in the rain, without raincoats, with a garbage bag on your head ”.

Received only 100 Eur per week

Lithuanians also had questions about wages. Before their arrival, they were promised to earn from 930 euros on paper, the rent for the room did not exceed 70 euros, but upon arrival, it turned out that they would earn 740 euros a month and the rent would drop to almost 100 euros. Eur per week.

Little friends of the same age also saw different hourly wages in their employment contract. Livonia’s contract stipulates a salary of 10 euros and Laura’s salary is 8.85 euros. These contracts were presented by the girls and Delphi.

“In the Netherlands, there is an age limit, the employer asks what age and then tells you what your exact salary is. But we didn’t understand why it was different for us, girls of the same age, we wanted to find out, ”says Laura.

The sums of money promised, as the interlocutor points out, were impossible to earn because the employer did not provide more hours of work. In the first week, they received a total of 100 Eur.

“We work from 7 in the morning in the first week. In the morning until 13-14. You just can’t physically earn that amount (about $ 1,000) because you pay by the hour. But nobody gave us work hours, even though we asked that we stay overtime just to give ourselves more work.

We asked why we only received 100 euros per week, after taxes. The mediator just laughed at us, saying we weren’t at work for a day and a half. We weren’t there when we tried to call and ask if they could help us with the raincoats and the bikes, ”he says.

The girls got more work in the second week, so the workday started at 7 pm and lasted until 6 pm They later found out that they might no longer be going to work because they were causing conflicts over pay.

He was fired because he was seeking justice

“Vaida (mediator – Delphi) complained to a manager who wanted to kick us out for personal reasons: we don’t trust Vaida and we were looking for the truth about salaries. He wanted to get us out of work first. However, we called the manager himself, who rehired us. The next day he was expelled again.

However, the complete fiasco was when the CEO himself asked to wait three days to solve the situation, he promised us work, housing, that everything would be fine. But trusting in her help and in her truth, they finally told her that we had to pack up and go, ”says Laura. According to her, all Lithuanians who started their new job returned to Lithuania or found another job.

“We used it, we didn’t pay all of our wages, we threatened the courts if we wanted to get information about our wages. We ask the person involved in our employment not to give us the details.
We will try to seek justice with lawyers, because it is already a human right. We are all people worthy of respect from whom we have not received a drop. We don’t feel so much financially or psychologically disadvantaged. We experience a lot of psychological stress and bullying throughout the week, ”says the Lithuanian.

I have more stories like this

The young woman described the whole situation on her Facebook account and received several letters from a Lithuanian who worked at the same place, who allegedly believed in similar situations.

“It is granulated, because many Lithuanians worked in this company. As far as I received the letters, they all described that employer and the mediator as the worst memories of their lives because they had experienced the greatest psychological pressure and harassment.

Here, employees change according to a conveyor principle. When they see the real situation, people leave home after a week or a month. We are talking about several dozen Lithuanian employees. The company is especially good at attracting young people through Facebook: it reports that the work is easy, although sometimes people work after 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. without a rest. This is the complete exploitation of people.

I spoke personally with the director of the company. He said it was good for him if people worked up to three months, it was no longer relevant. This approach says a lot, ”says Laura.

Mediator: you have to find a reason with them

First of all Delphi He tried to contact Vincent van Baal, director of Hoorn Bloommasters, but received no comment. Vaida Vlasovienė, the mediator herself, told a bit about this situation on Facebook. He noted that the girls did not go to work, so they were not counted.

“Since they did not attend work, they were paid for the hours worked. Does Lithuania also pay a salary if a person does not go to work? I think we should find a reason with themselves. Can a young person not work in the Netherlands for more than a week? “, Ask.

Noting that the girls could no longer work because they were fired and possibly due to poor living conditions, the mediator considers it a slander.

“It is a slander that employs more than 100 people. I will definitely not fall for the ambitions of teenagers, ”he says.

When asked why the girls had been fired, the mediator briefly replied: “Because they were lazy, justifying that it was raining.”

When asked if the company should not take over the transportation of workers in work vehicles, the woman just laughed: “I have no comment” and was ordered to contact the employment agency through which girls were recruited.

Then he added: “I didn’t mention that I took them off the street because I really didn’t have a place to live, they gave me a car.”

Delphi He also tried to contact the Antena employment agency, but has not yet received a response.