Members of the Environmental Committee of Workers and Domestic Workers of the
Employee Initiative ---- The Workers' Initiative has been joined by theEnvironmental Commission of Workers and Domestic Workers. It is the first unionstructure of domestic workers in Poland, composed entirely of migrant women fromUkraine. It is the Ukrainian women who most often come to Poland to work asnannies for children and the elderly or people with disabilities. ---- - The mostimportant thing for our union is the fight for the universal legality ofemployment - says Ruslana Poberezhnyk, member of the presidium of the newcommission - At the moment, most people work in care without contracts,illegally. This means that we do not pay social security contributions, we cannotsee a doctor. There are no regulations regarding the time of our work, the listof tasks that we have to perform. Many girls are theoretically caring for anolder person, but are also required to clean, cook, or administer drugs and eveninjections, she says. - Our right to rest and leisure is not respected. Employersoften expect to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Meanwhile, the money we getin our hands is little more than the Polish minimum wage.As Poberezhnyk says, the idea of establishing a trade union immediately convincedher. - Now it was so, that when one of us was cheated, the family did not pay hermoney, I or one of us went to talk, try to get my salary back, intercede for afriend. Now I will be able to intervene not as a private person, but as a tradeunion. This gives new legal opportunities, a way to put pressure on employers, heexplains.Lack of regulations regarding home work and care for seniors, differences inwages in Poland and Ukraine, and the crisis of care in Poland are used en masseby employment agencies. Some of them operate in Poland, others in Ukraine. Unionmembers complain that the agencies do not protect their interests in any way -they do not guarantee them the possibility of legal employment, sometimes evenlegal residence. Contracts are often signed only with employers. - The son of thelady he is dealing with pays the agency that employs me every month for the jobplacement and the guarantee of finding a replacement, if I have to leave, I willget sick. I have no contract with them - one of the committee members explainshis situation.However, the goal of a trade union is not only to combat exploitation carried outby temporary employment agencies or to put pressure on individual employers.According to domestic workers, campaigns directed at state and local authoritiesare necessary. - The state must recognize that families need support in caringfor the elderly. At the moment, if someone legally hires a nanny for a childunder 3 years of age, they do not have to pay ZUS contributions for this nanny.We believe that in the case of older people it should be the same - explainsPoberezhnyk. - We need top-down government pressure to legalize our work, signnormal contracts, and pay taxes and contributions. It will also pay off for thestate that this money will be discharged normally, and not paid under the table,he notes.Union members have been in contact with people doing similar work in Chicago,USA, for months, even before the commission was officially established. There,carers and domestic workers associated with the Illinois Domestic WorkersCoalition have achieved significant success in the fight for decent workingconditions. The American trade union, like the Workers' Initiative committee, ismade up mostly of migrant women - most of them Mexican and Polish. Two years ago,they managed to win the adoption by the state governor of a law guaranteeingbasic employment-related rights for workers, such as a minimum wage, the right torest, and freedom from violence, sexual harassment and mobbing. - We want toadopt similar solutions in Poland - says Poberezhnyk.https://ozzip.pl/informacje/mazowieckie/item/2822-opiekunki-imigrantki-walcza-o-swoje-prawa_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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