"Dutch-German migrant worker scandal reveals gaps in EU cooperation", 15. December 2022

EU-level action is needed to fight the mistreatment of intra-bloc migrant workers, experts warn after police raids revealed workers, primarily from eastern and southeastern Europe, employed in the Netherlands were forced to live in unacceptable conditions across the border in Germany.

During a series of house searches along the German-Dutch border, police forces found living conditions of migrant workers in employer-sponsored housing unacceptable, despite large parts of their salaries going on rent.

“The conditions were so desolate that there was a danger to life and limb of the residents,” the Building Ministry of the German region of North Rhine-Westphalia, which oversaw the police raids together with the Dutch labour authorities, said in a statement this week. This included missing emergency exits and dysfunctional heating, and some residents were even forced to live in storage rooms.

The statement added that Dutch authorities found evidence of “blatant breaches of labour protection laws”, including minimum wage, working hours, and protection against dismissal.

Many migrant workers came from other EU countries, such as Romania or Poland and were sent to work in Dutch meat factories or construction sites by temporary employment agencies.

“[These agencies] purchase or rent cheap housing on the German side, lure temporary workers from Eastern and Southeastern Europe with often false promises, and accommodate them under dubious conditions,” the ministry concluded.

Ilja Philippen-Nijssen, food industry director at trade union FNV, told EURACTIV that they are looking into the situation and have yet to hear more about the ongoing case. In the collective labour agreement for the meat sector, “we have included an agreement that the clients ensure that they only work with contractors who use SNF-certified housing.”

She added that they plan to address both the clients and contractors if they learn through employees “that things are going wrong somewhere”.

Meanwhile, the agencies profit from loose Dutch labour laws, Pagonis Pagonakis, who was present for some of the police raids and runs a project on labour rights for intra-EU migrant workers sponsored by the German Trade Union Confederation, told EURACTIV.

“They exploit the border location for their ends and try to maximise profit on both sides,” he stressed. [...]

On a more fundamental level, he added that while joint operations such as the recent raids help shed light on specific cases, “they will not eliminate the problem”. He concluded that better political awareness of the factors facilitating systems of exploitation will be needed on the EU level.

Somaglia, for his part, told EURACTIV that his union has a set of demands that the EU should take into consideration regarding trade mobility so that employers are not cutting costs and migrant workers are not exploited, including an increase in labour inspections and ensuring workers have decent housing conditions.