Photo: EFE
A man reports on the job in several European Center for Advanced Technologies countries. EFE / File
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Severe labor exploitation also extends the European Union
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06/02/2015 00:40 (-6 GTM)
Vienna, June 2 (EFE) .- Wages of 1 euro per hour or 12-hour shifts seven days a week. A labor exploitation which in principle is identified with the Third World but is also widespread in rich Europe of the century, according to the complaint the European Union itself in a report released today.
“It is common severe labor exploitation workers who have or transfer within the EU, although sometimes it remains invisible to the public “, says research conducted by the Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) EU, based in Vienna.
This is the first depth analysis of labor exploitation in the European Union, which affects not only third country nationals but also community who have migrated to other EU countries.
The document mentions cases ranging from Lithuanian collecting fruit English, Portuguese Fields build roads in Holland or North Koreans who work in Polish shipyards.
What these workers have in common is suffering situations as “being paid EUR 1 or less an hour, working 12 hours a day six or seven days a week, be housed in tough conditions or not be allowed to take vacation or sick leave. “
The agency points out that globalization has much to do with labor exploitation.
Thus, the provision of a worker to accept certain working conditions reflects the situation of someone who thinks that even exploited in the country they have migrated, are in a better unemployment or poverty situation that left at home.
The report also mentions the relationship between economic crisis and exploitation.
So, experts point out that Portugal exploitation and even slavery, were growing there and in Spain, especially in agriculture that require temporary.
A holding that “economic and political interests” want to be invisible, especially in times of crisis.
The report notes that this violation of human rights is especially true in agriculture, construction, catering, domestic service and industry.
“The severe labor exploitation is happening now in the door next to our own countries, not the other side of the world, and weakens more and more living standards of other workers if we do nothing” , told Efe Katya Andrusz, deputy spokesman of this body of the EU.
Thus, the FRA warns that if EU partners do not take action on the matter and criminals are not prosecuted, general conditions labor market may get worse.
“This can lead to endemic forms of labor exploitation gradually infiltrating sectors of the economy, canceling labor standards for workers who move within or to the EU and, in the longer term negatively impacting the rights of all workers, “warns the report.
” In the EU we have made human rights a cornerstone of our identity, “recalls Andrusz about the contradiction that people are just in these countries working conditions “that would have been the late nineteenth century.”
So Andrusz stresses the need to make visible the problem.
“The problem that the public is not aware that hotels which goes restaurants or eating are the result of labor exploitation, “he said.
Therefore, the document stresses the need for a” zero tolerance “this form of abuse.
No But the FRA warns that the general population between certain tolerance towards exploitation, considering that these workers voluntarily accept these conditions.
For example, the FRA reports that the “small and small-scale exploitation of migrant women the domestic environment is so common that often are not seen as a violation of human rights “.
The agency recognizes that it is not possible to quantify how many people suffer labor exploitation in the EU, among other things by fear of victims to report, by isolation or by ignorance of the language of the country.
As solutions, the FRA highlights the need for a robust system of inspections, standardizing legislation between countries, ensuring that victims feel protected to appear before justice, criminals are punished and identified and more transparency in recruitment policies.
For example, Andrusz indicates that it has detected a serious problem in companies using subcontractors in other countries, so it should claim to parent companies that take responsibility for the working conditions of those subcontractors.
Another positive measure may be the creation of quality labels to ensure that a product or service has been made free labor exploitation, like using fair trade or organic food. Antonio Sanchez Solis
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