WORLD WORLDWIDE GERMANY News Journal Update - (en) Germany, FAU, DIREKTE AKTION: PACKAGES ARE NOT FREE (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 FAU Göttingen and FAU Kassel fight against systematic wage fraud in the DHL

parcel center. ---- Operations & Society By: Fabio Hartmann - May 10, 2023 ----
Hundreds of thousands of parcels are processed every day in the DHL parcel center
Staufenberg between Göttingen and Kassel. Currently, 24 employees who worked
there for the temporary employment agency WorKings are fighting for their wages
with the support of FAU Göttingen and FAU Kassel. WorKings is a subcontractor
that has recruited and hired workers for DHL Paketzentrum. Workers withheld parts
of their wages from the affected employees for several months. The colleagues
therefore submitted reminders to WorKings in March and are demanding a total of
around 100,000 euros in outstanding wages.

The employees concerned are mainly from Somalia and Eritrea. There was no direct
contact from WorKings, only contact via a WhatsApp group. Those who complained
about the working conditions were sometimes threatened with dismissal. It is
obvious that the company WorKings specifically hired migrants in order to
systematically cheat them out of their wages. Migrants are particularly
vulnerable on the German labor market. On the one hand, because they often know
their rights less well - but above all, because their residence status is often
linked to employment and there is therefore a great fear of being fired.

The case of an employee will now be heard in court first. This procedure is based
on the fact that, according to labor law, the cases must be negotiated
individually. However, all affected colleagues have signed a statement that makes
it clear that this is not an isolated case, but systematic wage fraud. In
addition, on Wednesday, April 19, on the day of the first hearing, a rally took
place in front of the Goettingen Labor Court. The outcome of the hearing was not
available at the time of going to press. Current information can be found on the
FAU Göttingen website.

It is common practice in the parcel industry for large companies such as DHL and
Hermes to work with subcontractors. In this way, applicable collective agreements
are circumvented, costs are saved and at the same time responsibility is absolved
if there are violations of labor law and fraud at the subcontractors. The
contract with the company WorKings, which is just one of several subcontractors
in the Staufenberg parcel center, has now been terminated by DHL. However, DHL
does not have to accept responsibility for the wage fraud.

FAU stands for solidarity with colleagues who have been cheated of their wages.
The fight must continue against the racist exploitation of workers in Germany and
worldwide.

https://direkteaktion.org/pakete-gibt-es-nicht-zum-nulltarif/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca