Tens of thousands of workers from Eastern Europe will once again bring in the German fruit and vegetable harvest this year. Many people cannot count on minimum wage and social security.
According to a trade union initiative in Germany, seasonal agricultural workers continue to be employed under sometimes illegal conditions. Those affected described cases to the “Fair Farm Work Initiative” in which they were denied the minimum wage or their working hours were extended beyond the legally permitted limit.
In its “Seasonal Report 2023”, the organization supported by unions and churches also talks about short-term layoffs when the piecework rate is undercut and excessive accommodation costs that were charged to the harvest workers.
Lack of social security
The IG Bauen Agrar Umwelt, which is responsible for agriculture, together with its sister unions from Poland, Bulgaria and Romania, are concerned about the lack of social security, especially for short-term employees. For IG-BAU vice-president Harald Schaum, it is “unacceptable and incomprehensible that we in Germany rely on the labor of our compatriots, but deny short-term employees, some of whom have toiled in our fields for decades, not only full health insurance coverage, but also pension rights .”
Jobs lasting up to 70 working days can be exempt from social security contributions; illegal chain contracts are not uncommon, according to the unions. Cheap group tariffs for private health insurance do not offer sufficient health protection during hard work in the fields.
DGB board member Anja Piel spoke out against the customs control practice of allowing employees’ accommodation costs to be deducted from the minimum wage. As in construction, employers would have to bear the costs of group accommodation.
Contacts with more than 3,000 seasonal workers evaluated
For its sixth seasonal report, the initiative evaluated contacts with more than 3,000 seasonal workers. The majority of people came from the EU states Romania and Poland. There are not problems in all companies: the increasing use of digital working time recording and improvements in accommodation were noted as positive. With reduced acreage, farmers would also have had fewer problems finding suitable workers.
The number of short-term employees is falling because workers are employed for longer periods of time subject to social security contributions. Throughout the year they did a variety of jobs in animal husbandry, in tree nurseries or in the horse industry. According to figures from the Federal Employment Agency, at the end of May 2023, around 50,000 harvest workers were employed on a short-term basis and more than 60,000 workers from Eastern Europe were employed long-term in agriculture. Over the year as a whole, the initiative involves around 275,000 people in seasonal work.
Source: Stern
