International union cooperation to protect migrant workers

Two of Bulgaria’s union confederations, CITUB and CL Podkrepa, signed an agreement on 19 March 2012, establishing a framework for cooperation with the German Trade Union Confederation DGB on mobile workers. The following day, a conference brought together trade unionists and policy-makers from Germany, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania to discuss the threats posed and opportunities offered by workers’ right to freedom of movement, and to consider how to win fair treatment for them.

Background

A new framework agreement signed in Berlin on 19 March 2012 is the fourth international agreement in which Bulgarian trade unions have been involved. Already concluded are agreements with unions from the United Kingdom, Greece and Cyprus on labour market cooperation and the protection of labour rights and negotiations on a third are underway with trade unions in Spain, where many Bulgarians work and live as both immigrants and temporary residents.

Details of the new agreement

The main focus of the Bulgarian-German Agreement is to prepare for the end of the temporary restriction of access to the German labour market for Bulgarian and Romanian workers from 1 January 2014.

With the gradual establishment of full freedom of movement in the enlarged European Union, the challenges of cross-border work are increasing. These include the hiring of workers in the border areas, and an increase in non-standard employment and the numbers of posted workers. Because such workers usually lack information about labour and social legislation in the country where they are working, their employment conditions are often below local minimum standards.

The Bulgarian-German cooperation aims to protect the interests and rights of employees, regardless of their place of work. In order to achieve more effective protection for mobile workers, counselling and consultation services should be available within both countries. This will happen under the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) two-year project Fair Mobility, which until mid-2014 will actively promote the fair social treatment of mobile workers. Its funding is provided by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the European Social Fund. The project’s steering committee includes trade union representatives from Germany, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland.

Basis of the project

The project is based on four pillars.

• Scientific and expert analysis that will identify the problems faced by mobile workers and the action needed to solve them. The analysis will focus on those sectors and industries where the employment of foreign workers is concentrated and therefore where the risks are greatest for the exploitation of labour and poor working conditions.

• The establishment of six counselling and consultation offices across the Federal Republic of Germany each of which, it is envisaged, will not only deal with general workers’ issues but also develop specialist expertise in certain employment sectors (for example, social care workers in Berlin, construction and cleaners in Frankfurt, meat and meat processing in Hamburg). The aim is to set up these offices closest to the areas where mobile workers live and work.

• Development of seminars and training at union training centres specifically for mobile workers from Eastern Europe, to educate them about workers’ rights to freedom of movement and labour legislation protection. This will include training about works councils and staff councils, which exist at the company level in Germany.

• Two conferences will be organised to discuss the economic and social impact of free movement of workers on the domestic labour market. These will be supplemented by workshops, seminars, counselling and consulting, and the production and distribution of information booklets and leaflets, both online and on paper, in various languages.

Union views

DGB Executive Board Member Annelie Buntenbach stressed that all efforts should be aimed at preventing exploitation and humiliating working conditions, and to observe the principle of ‘equal pay for equal work in the same place of work’.

Plamen Dimitrov, President of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), and Evgeni Dushkov, Confederal Secretary of the Confederation of Labour Podkrepa (CLP), stressed that the agreement favours both Bulgarian and German workers, since recognition of trade union membership in both countries would ensure protection of trade union and workers’ rights, regardless of the location of a worker.

Commentary

Public fears of a formidable negative impact on local labour markets from an Eastern European migrant invasion are not justified. On the contrary, in some countries (such as the United Kingdom) the free movement of workers is seen as making a positive contribution to the growth of national economies. The removal of regulatory controls is not only a question of equal treatment, but is important for social cohesion and the harmonisation of wages and living standards in the European Union.

Lyuben Tomev, ISTUR