Fair treatment of Europe’s cross-border workers, 23 June 2020

On 11 April Nicolae Bahan, aged 57, was found dead in the living container he was sharing with other seasonal workers on a farm in Bad Krozingen in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. An autopsy later confirmed the cause of death as COVID-19.

Nicolae was one of the over 1.5 million European cross-border workers who work in another EU member state, in key economic sectors: agriculture, tourism, social and medical care, construction, HORECA or transport.

Even during the pandemic, when most of us were still in lockdown, tens of thousands of seasonal workers were being crammed in charter planes and flown to asparagus farms in Germany, to slaughterhouses in the Netherlands or to other places where labour shortage was critical.

Forced to sign contracts in German, Dutch, or other languages they don’t read, they ofen find out upon arrival that their working hours are longer, their salaries much smaller than promised and their living conditions abysmal, with housing and living with little protection against COVID-19...

The condition of the cross-border and seasonal workers is the topic of a resolution set to be adopted by the European Parliament... The resolution covers a lot of policy areas – both for the protection of the mobile workers from the direct effects of COVID-19, but also from the numerous gaps in national legislation in which they often find themselves, indirectly worsened by the pandemic. It also calls for the proper implementation of often ignored legislation...