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Freshly harvested asparagus: Again, the working conditions are criticized

Photo: Roland Weihrauch/ picture alliance / dpa

Wage dumping, inadequate health insurance coverage and high accommodation costs are widespread in the asparagus, vegetable and strawberry harvest in Germany, according to a study by Oxfam. Seasonal workers in agriculture are confronted with "systematically depressed wages and a barely transparent combination of hourly and piecework wages". This is the conclusion of a new study by Oxfam and the Fair Agricultural Work Initiative.

These "untenable" conditions are not isolated cases. Employees regularly complain about false information in the recording of working hours, which means that they have to work more than they are paid," said Benjamin Luig of the Fair Agricultural Work Initiative. Ten hours of heavy and monotonous physical work are part of everyday life in German agriculture.«

Another problem, according to the study, is high wage deductions, for example for accommodation. "For a barrack without a kitchen, one of the companies charges 40 euros per square metre. The average cold rent in Munich's city centre is 23 euros. Here, all leeway to deprive people of their fair wages is being exploited," criticized Steffen Vogel, Oxfam's expert on global supply chains and human rights in the agricultural sector.

"This is not Europe"

One Brandenburg company in particular stood out. "Mold grows in the rooms. There is no kitchen, cooking is done on mobile hotplates," they say. One worker summed up his living situation: "This is not Europe."

According to Oxfam and the Fair Agriculture Initiative, the study also shows that workers are insufficiently insured. Most of them do not have comprehensive health insurance coverage or say they are not insured at all. A large proportion of them are employed through the short-term employment model. For these employees, companies usually take out private group health insurance, which offers a much smaller range of services than statutory insurance. Some seasonal workers reported that they had to pay their own treatment costs.

The German Farmers' Association (DBV) counters: "Seasonal workers in Germany receive at least an hourly wage of twelve euros, often even significantly more. This is considerably more than is paid in most European countries," said DBV Deputy Secretary General Udo Hemmerling. Occupational health and safety is always a top priority.

In addition, many employees have been working in the same companies over and over again for many years. "If they didn't find good working conditions in these companies and were poorly paid, they would certainly have changed jobs long ago," Hemmerling added.

The authors of the study see part of the blame for the situation of workers in German supermarkets because they "pay ruinously low prices for asparagus, strawberries and vegetables," as Oxfam criticizes. Thus, they would exert enormous price pressure on the companies, which they would pass on to the workers in the fields.

No insurance coverage from day one

Oxfam Germany and the Fair Agricultural Work Initiative demanded that purchasing below production costs be banned. The federal government must also ensure that seasonal workers are generally employed subject to social security contributions, among other things, so that they receive full statutory health insurance coverage from day one.

Wage dumping and massive pressure to perform should not be a business model, Benjamin Luig demanded. Member organisations of the Fair Agricultural Work Initiative advise seasonal workers throughout Germany on their labour rights.

According to the information, the study is based on its own research and a report by an institute for which workers were interviewed at four companies that, according to test purchases, supply German supermarkets.

mamk/AFP