Canal mason about his salary, stench and green rats

Personal: Mike Bialuschewski, 52 years old
Monthly average earnings gross (including surcharges): 4800euro

I have been a channel mason at Berlin’s water farms for 27 years. My job is to maintain the channels and shaft lids in Berlin.

Before I started the waterworks, I was a normal bricklayer. My father, on the other hand, was that I became a canal mason. So I decided that behind his back and applied. In the end he was just happy that I had a job. There were many unemployed people 27 years ago.

Now I earn 4800 euros a month with all surcharges. This is less than normal masons, because they can demand more money from customers. To do this, they often have to work overtime, I have very regulated working hours in the public service. And I can live well from the salary and take care of my children. But of course every euro would be nice.

Today there are more problems to find people for the job. Who wants to work where other people’s excretions end up? It’s special, you have to like it. But I always enjoy the job.

For me, the disgust is no longer a problem. At some point you just pass an accident, you slip out or a hose breaks. Of course this is not pleasant, but then you just take a shower, and then it works again. I wouldn’t want to eat my Stulle down there either, but there are far worse things to work. I could never work as a crime scene cleaner, for example.

Unlike most, it does not stink in the channel either. At least not if he is well ventilated. For this there are the holes in the canal lid.

What bothers me much more about my job are the people who complain. Motorists who cannot over the intersection because the concrete around the renewed channel lid is hardening, for example. They are often very impatient and difficult to calm down. If you become more aggressive, I try to explain what’s going on, in nice words. I sometimes have to bite my tongue. If you don’t calm down, I just go on. You have to have a thick fur.

Sometimes we make color water checks. Food coloring is dissolved in water, and then you let it out somewhere and see where it flows – so where there may be something. Once I only saw how suddenly five green rat babies ran out of the shaft across the street. They really looked like extraterrestrials, I had to laugh like that. I generally see rats many in the job, but they don’t bother me.

Note: Mike Bialuschewski is part of the program “What deserves Germany”, which runs on Thursday, May 15, 2025 at 8:15 p.m. The star is part of RTL Germany.