Indictment against the 'medieval' working conditions for 500,000 immigrants in Germany, by Belgian Ministers

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(image: Georg Grosz)

Belgium announced that it will submit a lawsuit against Germany to the
European Commission for unfair competition through the application of an
extensive social dumping which has been going on for years.

The lawsuit will be filed by the Minister of Economics Johan Vande Lanotte
and the Minister for Employment Monica De Coninck, both members of the
Flemish Socialist Party.

Their aim is to disprove the myth that Germany is the best student of the
Community and it constitutes the ideal example that the other
member-states must follow.

According to the indictment of the two Belgian Ministers the Germans apply
an extensive social dumping at the expense of the other European Union
states by importing massively cheap labor from eastern Europe.

Thus, Bulgarian, Romanian and Ukrainian immigrants are working for German companies for 60 hours per week, paid with 3 to 4 euros per hour. Furthermore, their labor is not covered by social benefits and any kind of social security. In other words, no pensions, no health care, and no compensation in the case of an accident and so on. Such slavemarket practices are allowed in Germany because there is no fixed minimum wage in many areas of the economy. In other words all these German businessmen who shamelessly exploit 500,000 workers from Eastern Europe, do not violate any law for minimum wage and social insurance, because for slaves in Germany no minimum wage exists.

The direct effect of this unfair kind of competition from the “law abiding” Germany, is that thousands of well paid jobs are lost in Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and France.

While the situation of workers without a minimum wage and social security is prosecuted by all means as an illegal activity in various countries, Germany proceeds in exploiting half a million of such workers, insisting that such a ‘Medieval’ state of labor conditions is absolutely reasonable and legitimate. If we allow Germany to do whatever she wants, two Belgian ministers argue, the result will be not only a failure in improving social and income conditions in countries of Eastern Europe, but rather, a worsening of socioeconomic conditions for workers in the rest of Europe as well.

 

Written by Y. Daratou (source: http://left.gr/news/kataggelia-tis-velgikis-kyvernisis-kata-toy-ergasiakoy-mesaiona-gia-500000-metanastes-stin)