Slaughterhouses and meat industries. Behind the contagions at Covid-19, German-style caporalism

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Slaughterhouses and meat industries per se do not represent activities at risk of Covid-19 infection. Rather, behind the spread of contagions in Germany is the exploitation of workers. Treated themselves as beasts to pull the German locomotive, Europe’s leading meat producer. Social dumping. The European Federation of Trade Unions in the Food, Agriculture and Tourism Sectors (EFFAT) publishes a report, 25.6.20, in which it analyzes the critical issues in the industry in some European countries. (1) Thus the true cost of foreign meat and ‘cheap’ hams from ‘EU’ pork legs is revealed.

A highly competitive industry

The meat industry in Europe employs nearly one million workers, more than 32,000 companies, and accounts for 1.53 percent of EU-27 GDP. Fierce competitive conditions, nationally as well as internationally, induce many operators to race to the bottom on wages and working conditions.

‘The meat sector is a fragmented industry with excess capacity and consequently under cost pressure from more powerful customers who have access to imported product and can exert cost pressures.

Margins are normally low and volatile. In most countries, large slaughterhouses have the largest market share or are growing rapidly’ (EFFAT).

Competition at the expense of workers

In this context, many enterprises adopt strategies that affect workers in various ways. Increasing line speeds (with health and safety implications), flexible work arrangements, bone-jarring wages, increasing use of precarious workers. In an employment context moreover so wearing that it generates high turnover rates in most European countries.

‘Identifying common elements in the exploitation cases identified by our affiliates, the following arise: job insecurity, low wages and long working hours are often the norm for many meat workers’ (EFFAT).

Migration and exploitation

Cross-border and migrant workers, from EU and non-EU countries, make up a large part of the workforce. European workers generally are hired by middlemen, who charge them a recruitment fee plus travel expenses to reach the destination country.

Intermediaries may be temporary employment agencies, bogus cooperatives, which sometimes even frame workers as self-employed. There is no shortage of cases of illegitimate subcontracting, with puppet companies enabling employers to evade responsibility and evade payments, social security payments and taxes.

Wage disparities with workers hired directly by companies are almost always significant. And wages are further reduced by deductions for lodging, transportation, even for work tools and PPE (personal protective equipment).

Covid-19, the causes of infection in some slaughterhouses

Covid-19 outbreaks in some slaughterhouses and meat processing industries have nothing to do with the presence of animals. Instead, the causes of infection should be attributed to other circumstances, which EFFAT specifically identifies.

Safety distances are unknown to many workers throughout the day:

in the factory we often work elbow to elbow. Increasing the distance means slowing down the pace of production, and not all enterprises are willing to do so,

housing for migrant and cross-border workers, often provided along with the engagement, is overcrowded with multiple people placed in the same rooms,

means of transportation to the workplace are collective. In addition to public transportation, collective transportation organized by employers is widely used.

Precariousness and the need to earn, in the absence of protection in case of illness or benefits that are too low, may lead some workers to hide symptoms of contagion, for fear of losing their jobs. Other risk factors relate to the characteristics of establishments and Covid-19 emergency management:

poor ventilation, typical of older establishments, significantly increases the spread of the virus,

shortage of PPE (masks and respirators), operating instructions not always available in foreign workers’ languages,

Lack of inspections. In many countries, the frequency of inspections by labor inspectors, as well as public veterinarians, decreased significantly during the pandemic. This encouraged violations of the law and precautionary anti-infection measures.

Where prevention works

Countries that have introduced-and verified the effective implementation-of precautionary measures to safeguard workers’ health and safety, conversely, have recorded few or no outbreaks.

The measures, prescribed by governments and/or social representations (e.g., EFFAT and FoodDrinkEurope), contemplate:

  • Information about the risks associated with the virus,
  • Temperature monitoring at the entrance of facilities,
  • Ad hoc hygiene precautions,
  • Staggering of work shifts to ensure spacing,
  • Use of protective equipment and review of workstations.

For more details, see the freeebookCovid-19, abc. Volume II – Society‘.

The social cost of meat in different countries of Europe

Social and healthdumping, unfair competition. This is the recipe of most slaughterhouses and meat processing industries in continental Europe. EFFAT’s dense network of workers’ unions in the food supply chain enabled it to provide an overview of contracting and conditions for workers in several European states.

Germany has wrested large slices of the market from other countries. Affirming a pattern of unfair competition that has also been followed in other countries, the Netherlands foremost, at the expense of workers and food safety. It was precisely German and Dutch pork that fomented an outbreak of hepatitis E that challenged the British health care system for more than 6 years, with an average of 150-200 thousand infections per year.

Germany, champion of abuse (and contagion)

Germany is a champion of contagions among workers in the meat industry. The largest outbreak involves Europe’s largest slaughterhouse in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck (North Rhine-Westphalia). Of the 7,000 workers, more than 1,550 tested positive for Covid-19. The severity of the situation triggered a new lockdown in the surrounding areas. EFFAT reports‘only a few of the most prominent cases, at plants in Westfleisch (151 positives out of 200 workers), Bad Bramstedt (109 positives), the Segeberg district (109 cases), and a slaughterhouse in Birkenfeld (200 Romanian workers infected).

Abuses are based on subcontracting, which cuts labor costs and allows meat industries to escape liability for violating workers’ rights. Minimum wage levels, social security contributions and other guarantees up in smoke. Thus advances the Germanic locomotive, which in recent years has put competing industries out of business and caused the loss of thousands of jobs in neighboring countries (Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Belgium):

– 27 percent of active meat workers in Germany (30 out of 110,000) are employed through subcontracting. These are mainly, as it happens, migrant and cross-border workers from Central and Eastern European countries.

– 80-90% of the total workforce of large industrial groups (e.g., Danish Crown, Tonnies, Westfleisch, Vion) is employed in this mode.

German-style subcontracting

Subcontracting in Germany has gone through two phases. Until 2015, subcontractors were always based in countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Workers were ‘posted’ to Germany but were subject to the compensation and protections established in their home countries (!). Two reforms then mitigated these phenomena, but did not stop it.

‘Low wages and exploitative working conditions went hand in hand with gangster practices and lack of social security coverage (including unemployment, sickness benefits and pensions).’

At least 5,000 workers in the German meat supply chain still come from companies based in Central and Eastern European countries, unions report.

‘No real improvement has been made. The subcontracting system still applies. Workers employed by subcontractors generally work between 48 and 65 hours per week, while meat workers employed directly by companies normally work about 40 hours per week and at most up to 48 hours’.

The workday for a ‘subcontractor’ can last up to 16 hours, six days a week. And earnings are, on average, 40 to 50 percent less than colleagues hired directly by the company. Overtime is neither recorded nor paid, work tools (aprons, knives, gloves) and housing (crowded dormitories with only one bathroom) are provided by the subcontractor for €200-350/month deducted from the salary. Work is always precarious, and unions do not rule out that many have gone to work despite the symptoms of the virus.

‘It is worth noting that inspections in the German meat sector do not function properly (not even, ed.) under normal circumstances. There is a lack of coordination between labor inspectorates and different inspection agencies. For example, minimum wage enforcement is controlled by one agency, health and safety standards by local government authorities, housing standards by another government agency. Another problem is the fact that sanctions are not effective and do not act as a deterrent against violations of applicable legislation’ (EFFAT).

Ireland

The meat sector plays a significant role in the Irish economy, with about 15,000 workers and 49 plants. 19 of them are confirmed clusters, with 1056 confirmed Covid-19 cases.

Controls have been reduced by the pandemic. No inspection in the old (1960s), poorly ventilated and noisy (a fact that forces screaming, shedding droplets) factories.

Conditions are so unfavorable that only migrants offer themselves: Brazilians, South Africans, and Eastern Europeans. In 2019, the government issued a total of 917 work permits for these jobs. From January to April 2020, there were already 800.

Workers, often hired by temporary agencies or subcontracted, earn the minimum wage. Some work piecework (i.e., they are paid according to the pounds of meat they process) and can earn a little more. But always little. They live in shared housing and move around in steps. Guidelines for protecting workers from Covid-19 infection were only issued on 18.5.20.

Labor rights violations are more frequent in the poorly organized red meat sector. The situation is slightly better in the pig and poultry industries, where the level of unionization is higher.

Irish unions are being marginalized. They are banned from entering the establishments. And even when there is a high level of union membership, the employer has no collective bargaining obligation.

Netherlands

In the Netherlands the situation is hardly less serious, at least in terms of law. However, outbreaks in slaughterhouses are clearly related to workers’ living conditions.

The first tests were conducted under pressure from Germany. At a Vion (Belgian-owned) slaughterhouse near the German border (in Groenlo) and with workers residing in Germany, one in 5 workers (147 out of 657) tested positive. Another Vion slaughterhouse was closed because minimum interpersonal distance was not ensured in the 17 vans transporting foreign workers. Other outbreaks have emerged in Scherpenzeel (also Vion’s) and Helmond (Van Rooi property).

Eighty percent of workers in the Dutch meat industry are European migrants hired by Dutch temporary agencies. Pay is equal to the minimum wage, and housing is arranged by the employer (apartments as well as bungalows or caravans). Less frequent is ‘detachment’.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, two plants were shut down after outbreaks emerged. First the Sisters and Anglesey chicken processing plant (58 out of 560 cases). Then two processing plants, Kober (Yorkshire, 165 positive cases), which supplies bacon to Asda, and Rowan Foods (Wrexham, Wales), which produces food for supermarkets throughout the UK.

The labor force consists mainly of migrants who live in cramped and overcrowded housing and commute by public transportation. Most of the foreign workers do not understand English and have not had access to information about the pandemic, according to the unions. Those who develop symptoms also go to work, out of need.

‘Sick pay is too low, 95 pounds a week is not enough to live on, to pay rent/electricity.’

France

Three clusters of Covid-19 were confirmed in slaughterhouses in France. One in the Groupe Sicarev agricultural cooperative (54 cases), one from Kermené in Côtes-d’Armor, Brittany (115 cases), and the third in the Arrivé plant of the LDC poultry group (9 cases).

The vast majority of workers employed in the sector are migrants and cross-border workers who come from the poorest European countries from Europe and Africa. Subcontracting practices and the posting of workers are widely used.

Poland

Outbreaks of the new coronavirus in a poultry processing plant owned by Danish Crown in Czyzew and in another established in Starachowice, southeastern Poland, with more than 100 workers sick or quarantined.

The labor force here includes a large number of migrant workers from Ukraine. Thanks to its central location in Europe and relatively low labor costs, Poland has become both a significant importer (of live pigs, fresh and frozen meat) and an international player in pork slaughtering and processing. More lax regulations on environmental protection and meat quality have thus attracted multinational groups.

‘It seems that in most factories, inexperienced employees work up to ten to fourteen hours, and overtime is often unpaid, especially in areas of the country with high unemployment.’

Italy

Despite occupational safety measures agreed to by unions, government and companies on 14.3.20 (and updated on 24.4.20), three outbreaks were recorded in the Mantua area, at Ghinzelli abattoirs in Viadana (12 cases), Gardani (12) and Martelli in Dosolo (2). Comprehensive testing has been initiated in all plants.

In the first two slaughterhouses, the infected workers are employees of a workers’ cooperative that serves as a subcontractor. It is the ‘multi-service’ system, which we wrote about regarding Italpizza. ‘Outside’ workers (in theory), framed as logistics and service workers, carry out production activities with unfavorable wages and contractual conditions, ‘elastic’ hours and pay, easy layoffs.

Abusive subcontracting practices, according to EFFAT. The business scheme is to outsource the entire production cycle (slaughtering, deboning, cutting, processing and packaging) to these workers. Only management and administration tasks are covered by industry collective agreements.

The cankerworm of fictitious cooperatives unites Italy and Spain. ‘Workers are not even aware of cooperative meetings or decisions made on their behalf. Illegal practices are widespread in terms of working hours, health and safety, taxes and social security contributions. This subcontracting chain almost entirely employs migrant workers from non-EU countries (such as Albania, Ghana, Ivory Coast, China) under precarious conditions‘.

Norway

Two outbreaks have emerged in Norwegian meat processing plants. In one of the two cases, the infected workers were all hired by agencies on fixed-term contracts. Foreigners (from Eastern Europe) were recalled from their home countries despite the lockdown. No quarantine but only social isolation after working hours.

However, all appropriate precautionary measures have been taken in the factories , including the translation of information into all workers’ native languages.

Spain

Three outbreaks of Covid-19 in slaughterhouses and meat packing plants. Little, considering that the industry employs about 100,000 workers and nearly 3,700 companies. In fact, Spain is the second largest meat producer, by volume, in the European Union (14.6 percent of the total).

The meat sector here is also characterized by subcontracting practices run by Spanish companies. Multiservice companies, as in Italy, but set up as temporary employment agencies to avoid the employers’ obligation to ensure equal treatment (under the Directive on Temporary Workers in national collective agreements for the meat industry).

Belgium

A serious outbreak occurred in Belgium with 70 people infected and two deaths out of 330 workers at a Lovenfosse Group meat factory.

Housing conditions for posted and ‘subcontracted’ workers, in addition to worker transportation, are the organization’s weak points. In fact, the posting of workers is abused to save on the costly insurance contribution scheme. This is compounded by subcontracting to companies in the logistics or food trade (with minimum wages).

During the pandemic, accurate guidelines and informational posters were launched in several languages (Arabic, Romanian, Bulgarian, Polish). But the recognition of Covid-19 as an occupational disease for food workers is limited. Applies only to the period between 13.3.20 and 17.5.20 and working conditions where it was impossible to maintain a social distance of at least 1.5 meters. Unions protest.

The Belgian industry in 2012 signed a protocol with the federal government that provides for joint and several liability along the subcontracting chain. The government has also sought to combat Germany’s unfair practices. In 2013, he denounced Germany’s‘unworthy practices‘ to the European Commission, guilty of unfair competition and social dumping .

Denmark

A favorable example comes from Denmark. If only 5 cases of Covid-19 positivity have been detected in the Danish meat industry, it is because all meat workers are covered by collective bargaining agreements and the level of union membership is very high.

Social distancing-or plexiglass barriers when it is impossible-is effectively respected. So is the equipping of PPE and reorganization of workstations.

Pig slaughterhouses in Denmark, still largely controlled by farmers’ cooperatives with centuries-old histories, are technologically advanced. They produce more with fewer workers.

In Denmark, only one in four workers is a migrant, and they are still hired directly by the company (without paltry subcontracting). It is therefore possible to live in decent and safe housing.

Austria

No cases of Covid-19 have been detected so far in the Austrian meat sector. All unionized enterprises with works council representatives in the industry have implemented strict health and safety measures to protect workers from Covid risk. Both in slaughterhouses and meat packing plants.

The problem could occur with nonunionized companies, where it is difficult to assess whether measures are implemented and adhered to properly. Social distancing is still a problem, however, and works councils and corporate employers are concerned about it.

Sweden

No outbreak in the meat sector in Sweden. Precautionary measures to ensure social distancing and minimize the risk of contagion are adhered to.

EFFAT’s demands

EFFAT first calls on Germany-the rotating chair of the EU Council-to improve working conditions in the meat industry. ‘The abusive subcontracting system in the German meat sector has destroyed thousands of jobs in other EU countries; it is therefore in the interest of all member states and the Commission that these measures be quickly adopted and implemented’.

The European Federation of Food Unions calls for concrete and urgent action, including binding measures, at both national and EU levels. To combat social dumping and end the unfair competition that has destroyed thousands of meat jobs in recent years in several member states.

European food workers’ unions , represented by EFFAT, are therefore calling on the European Commission to:

  • Propose an ambitious legal instrument to ensure joint and several (chain) liability throughout the subcontracting chain. The initiative should also aim to strengthen collective bargaining and combat wage dumping,
  • stimulate the German government to take the required measures to improve the situation in the meat sector,
  • Propose to the European legislature a legally binding instrument guaranteeing decent housing for all cross-border workers, seasonal and migrant,
  • Urgently strengthen the European Labor Authority (ELA), particularly with regard to joint and concerted inspections and the fight against undeclared work,
  • The immediate recognition of Covid-19 as an occupational disease,
  • Take measures to address the excessive bargaining power of retailers and mitigate the consequences of unfair European and international cross-border competition. In this regard, EFFAT calls on EU institutions to ensure compliance with the rules contained in EU Directive 2019/633 and the recommendations contained in the Farm to Fork strategy.

The European Commission is also asked to:

  • Adopt a binding due diligence initiative that also covers subcontracting and supply chains,
  • Improve the current EU legal framework governing regular labor migration channels to ensure uniform labor rights and equal treatment,
  • Adopt an EU initiative on fair minimum wages to promote sectoral collective bargaining and ensure respect for the rights of workers and trade unions, including site access rights and the right to organize and bargain collectively.

Member states are then called upon to ensure:

  • Promote the revision of Regulation 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems so that a European Social Security Code (ESSN) and an appropriate insurance status verification system are introduced as a matter of urgency,
  • Compliance with the revised Posting of Workers Directive.

The report is available in full at this link.

Marta Strinati and Dario Dongo

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Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".

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Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.