SIMI in Berlin: a record of the roundtable regarding foreign workers
On April 10th, 2014 the non-governmental organisations SIMI, OPU and MKC invited Czech and German experts to the Czech Embassy in Berlin to a roundtable themed “Foreign employees - second class workers?”. Representatives of Czech and German departments / unions, ministries of work, work inspectorates and the non-profit sector discussed how the types of jobs and employment accessible to foreigners are changing in the two aforementioned countries.
The discussion showed that aside from the complicated sub-supplier chains and the denial of contracts for dependent work, or the need for employment via the Social Security Adminsitration who’s scope has expanded in both countries, a new trend has began to appear in Germany whereby foreign workers are either sent abroad or left redundant.
The experts agreed that social dumping and the harming of foreign workers in light of exploitation can, to an extent, be prevented by further specifying legal norms (eg. regarding minimum wage or specifying conditions for dependent work) or by ensuring improved enforcement of employee rights. In this regard, there is great potential for the introduction of new forms of unions (eg. creating supranational unions or working committees based on the Austrian example)
The discussion including its conclusions is written up in detail in the record from the roundtable
