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Migrant workers in Poland at risk of exploitation

PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge 03.06.2015 09:38
A report by the EU’s Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has highlighted Poland as one of the EU countries where workers in the grey economy are most vulnerable to being exploited, with several case studies provided.
Photo: GlowimagesPhoto: Glowimages

The FRA investigation looked at ‘severe labour exploitation’ across Europe with a particular emphasis on migrant workers, who are often the most vulnerable.

The Polish agricultural sector was mentioned repeatedly, as no authority in Poland is permitted to monitor the working conditions on private farms.

This lack of regulation has allowed Ukrainian children to be employed seasonally on Polish farms.

One highlighted case study in Polish industry was the fate of eight men and four women from Vietnam, who were exploited in a sewing factory in the city of Bydgoszcz during 2011-12.

The workers signed documents in Polish, which they did not understand, had their passports and phones taken away by the employer and were kept in isolation, working around 70 hours a week. One of the workers was beaten by the employer after objecting to the conditions.

According to the report Poland is one of only four EU countries where less than 1% of all employers are inspected.

Even where there are inspections the report suggests that in some cases bribery of the police may have prevented further action.

In one case 20 Romanians in Poland were found to be subject to exploitation as market workers, though the employer has been inspected many times.

Meanwhile in a Gdansk shipyard where Bangladeshi workers were being exploited the labour inspectors did not notice anything initially as they had no access to translators.

However, the report also had something positive to say about Poland, pointing to a program which tries to inform non-EU immigrants in the country about their labour market rights. This program includes a website translated into many different languages such as Ukrainian. (sl/nh)

Source: Polskie Radio, EU FRA

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