Uzbek workers walk out in Gliwice

17 workers from Uzbekistan walked off the job a couple of days ago and are living in tents and shacks in Gliwice (Silesia). The people came in April to work on a construction site but received much less money than they were promised in Uzbekistan.

The workers were hired by a shady company - called "Bertur Biznes" in Uzbekistan. Bertur cooperates through a company called Dryps Consulting. This consulting firm was recommended by the Uzbek Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Jukow company. Jukow is a subcontractor on a building site. It was their job to provide cheap foreign labour to the construction company building the site.

The workers claim that they were told they'd earn about 3000 dollars a month in Poland but instead their salaries ranged from about 170 to 800 dollars for 10 hour days, 7 days a week (depending on the job). When they received this salary finally they went on strike and demanded to be paid what they were promised.

Dryps and Jukow of course claim that they know nothing about anything and are trying to convince the people to come back to work.

As it turns out, the workers did not even have individual contracts signed; instead a bunch of agents signed agreements amongst themselves.

The law in Poland is extremely unfavourable for foreign guest workers. The people are not allowed to work anyplace else than at the company which sponsored their visas. The boss of Jukow, Anna Maria Siemenowicz, is now threatening to cancel their contracts and their work permits. If the firm that sponsors them does this, their visa automatically expires and they become illegal.

The workers are in a difficult situation. The owner of the land they are camping on wants them off and it is likely the police will come and remove them. Nobody responsible cares about what happens to such workers and little is done to check their agreements and work conditions once they arrive. The law is in fact organized in such a way that makes them much more vulnerable to exploitation. And as with many foreign contact workers, they have passed through many agents, and each one claims that somebody else is responsible. All of them are making lots of money by hiring cheaper labour while unemployment is on the rise throughout Poland.