A campaign has started against the exploitation of workers in OTTO temporary agency. On February 11, ZSP and Priama Akcia organized informational actions and protests at the offices of OTTO in Poland and Slovakia. In Holland, a group of Polish workers, comrades from de Vrije Bond (AGA and ZAG) and the ZSP visited some workers “hotels”.
OTTO temporary agency is the biggest employer of workers from Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic in Holland. The salaries, lack of payment for sick leave or vacation and other working conditions, as well as the housing conditions, are sometimes ilelgal and do not comply with the collective agreement for temporary agencies. Moreover, OTTO create a system of labour control and earns money from a system of fines at work and at the company housing. We wrote more about the problems with the agency here: www.otto.zsp.net.pl
The company did not extend the contract of one of our comrades, He was unjustly and illegally fined a few times and he spoke out. He was waiting for his last salary and also for money he did not receive during his first month of work, moving for sick leave and an equivalent for vacation time. Instead of this, he received a notification that he was fined again – 1000 euros, without any explanation or documentation.
This is not a job – this is the slavery of workers!
Another comrade, who worked there and lived with him, still didn't receive his pay, despite the fact that he should get it by the 10th of the month. But late payments and incomplete ones are something normal at OTTO where many workers don't know if they will get everything or if they will get their salary with deductions, without any explanation, or if they will be fined.
The comrades, with other Polish workers and ex-workers from OTTO decided to fight and now there is a campaign with the Vrije Bond from Holland, the ZSP in Poland and Direct Action in Slovakia. We demand that OTTO pay the workers what they owe, that the stop with this system of fines, that they comply with the contracts, the promises they make and with the collective agreement, that they improve the conditions in their housing premises and stop with contractual discrimination. (For example, OTTO can terminate a temporary contract without any notification, but the workers have to pay a fine of 500 euros if they do the same. And sometimes they end their work without notification
because they haven't received all their salary or have problems with unjust fines.)
The actions will continue and intensify over the next few weeks.