Exploatarea ca model de afaceri. Lucrători europeni, privați de drepturile lor în Germania
Exploitation as a business model. European workers, deprived of their rights in Germany

Author(s): Carmen Molitor
Subject(s): Human Resources in Economy, Socio-Economic Research
Published by: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung
Keywords: shadow economy in Germany; exploitation by sub-contracting;
Summary/Abstract: Part of the world of work has always been in the shadows: especially on construction sites and in households, informal work, "gray", could never be eradicated. Recently, however, an obscure area has appeared on the German labor market, with a completely new bill. It is based on the systematic exploitation of workers from Central and Eastern Europe. Modern informal work relies on subcontracting, contracts with temporary agents and posted workers, being organized cross-border by companies with substantial profits. Employers do pay - at least in small installments - taxes and social security contributions to avoid conflict with the law, but are constantly looking for ways to minimize the wages actually paid to workers. Their rights, social protection, health and fair pay have become irrelevant in this world. // This study sheds light on these clandestine niches in the German labor market. It presents practices of social and wage dumping, which mobile workers in Central and Eastern European countries currently face in Germany, when they are posted from their own country, when they are placed by temporary employment agencies, when they perform fictitious self-employment. or work under company contracts. The examples presented show how in many economic fields, along with the well-protected social, legal and wage universe of those with a fixed and stable job, a parallel world of exploitation can coexist.

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