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The days of Polish workers are endless. In the morning, shortly after six o’clock, they have to be ready for the shuttle bus that takes them from the unadorned workers’ barracks in Wehr (D) to the waste incineration plant (KVA) in Hagenaustrasse in Basel. After an hour of bus travel, there are ten-hour shifts with short breaks at most. If you are unlucky you have to work the night shift. Then it’s time to work, wearing a protective mask, until you are picked up again in the morning, completely exhausted, and dropped off at the shelter.
Various sources and oral documents reveal how the labor force is exploited and how Swiss labor law is undermined. Assembly work has been carried out on the KVA since the beginning of September as part of the annual inspection.
Naftomontaz had to pay high fines
Germany recently had its scandal over the meat processor Tönnies, which brought to light the miserable working conditions of Eastern European employees. However, it doesn’t look much better at the waste incineration plant in Basel.
Some of the Polish workers can only now take their first day off after three weeks of daily work. Workers are also encouraged to cheat on timing. They must declare in their ten-hour workdays that they took a two-hour break. In fact, they have to work during this time.
They are also not allowed to enter on the “free” day at the entrance control. This means that they work almost 300 hours a month, instead of the 176 that the collective bargaining agreement (GAV) would allow. Therefore, the employer benefits in two ways: he can let his workers work twice and pay only the hours recorded with reference to official working hours.
The company has already registered once
The nearly 60 installers, welders and locksmiths affected are employees of the Polish company Naftomontaz Serwis. The company already registered once, during review work at the KVA two years ago. The bz received a decision from the Central Parity Control Authority (ZPK) since spring 2019.
Employer misconduct ranges from falling below minimum wage to unpaid wages and misclassifying employees as “apprentices” rather than “trained.” Thanks to this illegal trick, Naftomontaz was able to lower wages. The ZPK imposed a fine of 48,070 francs, after the labor market control for the construction industry (AMKB) brought the complaints to light.
Cosima Thurneysen, Managing Director of AMKB, confirms the research carried out by bz as part of the latest review work at the KVA. “Recent checks brought this to light,” he says.
Orders are transmitted due to lack of staff
In the network of companies involved, however, it is difficult to assign responsibilities. Industrielle Werke Basel (IWB), a public company in the canton of Basel-Stadt, operates the waste incineration plant.
Through a presentation, they awarded the revision contract to Martin AG of Wettingen, which in turn passed parts of the work over to the German Steag. And that in turn allows the Naftomontaz Serwis to function. The cascade system is anchored in the so-called displacement law. It is legal and also common for contracted companies, lacking know-how and personnel, to transfer work to other companies.
Swiss exhibition was at that time
The wage dumping scandal at Herzog & de Meuron’s prestigious new Swiss Exposition building in 2012 showed that these mostly foreign subcontractors sometimes complained about the rights of local employees. Workers to pay for repair.
The Swiss Exhibition, as a client, stepped in and helped the workers come out with a bridging pension. In addition, the fair sent the disabled construction worker a financial contribution for a professional reorientation. AMKB Managing Director Thurneysen takes the position that the building owner shares responsibility. “You have to check if companies and their subcontractors comply with the law and the collective agreement,” he says. In the legal sense, however, first-time entrepreneurs have a greater responsibility. The Displacement Act stipulates that they are “subsidiaries” of the subcontractors.
IWB knows nothing of Naftomontaz’s misconduct
But the companies involved are currently a long way from taking responsibility. It is questionable whether the IWB has made any effort to learn about conditions at its own construction sites. IWB spokesman Erik Rummer says he knows nothing about the Naftomontaz’s recorded misconduct. “The IWB was not informed of this neither by the company in question nor by the authorities,” he says.
The IWB will very well take responsibility for its construction sites. For example, they reportedly informed the “responsible authorities” about the use of external personnel in their systems. In the tenders, the IWB also noted mandatory compliance with Swiss law, with an explicit reference to occupational health and safety regulations and wages. Martin AG, which was awarded the contract for the overhaul work, knows nothing about the conditions at the construction site of the waste incineration plant. “We did not know that the Naftomontaz company had been fined,” says managing director Patrick Mussak.
IWB wants to help if the allegations are true
For Polish workers, however, there is reason for cautious optimism. At Steag AG, Naftomontaz’s customer, it is said upon request that they will try to “clear up” the situation with the subcontractor. The IWB promises that the allegations against Naftomontaz will be examined in cooperation with the responsible supervisory authorities. “If this is confirmed, the IWB, of course, will be ready to support the affected Polish workers,” says Rummer.
