I’m mendacity in a clear mattress. There are two triple bunks within the room; six beds. I attempt to sleep, nevertheless it’s fairly heat, and thru the wall subsequent to my head there’s a large TV blaring in Polish, which nobody is watching however might be by no means turned off. Nonetheless, now I’m lastly right here, lots of stress has lifted.
Earlier I reached the farm after an extended prepare journey and a carry from the station. I used to be greeted by the boss, Edyta, whose husband, Marcus, owns the farm. Edyta took my heavy suitcase – stuffed with meals – and carried it upstairs to the residing quarters, underneath the roof of a big barn.
The choice {that a} farm can be considered one of my locations was not troublesome. The meals trade in Europe would most likely collapse with out migrant labour. I had looked for jobs on a Polish web site as a result of Poles go in large numbers to Germany for work.
I replied to an advert and from the follow-up cellphone calls, I realized that I might be working seven days every week, that they assured work for not less than 10 hours a day and that I might be paid €6.20 (£5.27) an hour. I must pay the company a payment of €200 and a one-off sum of €105 for my mattress. I might purchase and prepare dinner my very own meals. Additionally they advised me to convey boots and rubber gloves.
The primary day
The morning after I arrive, my roommate, Danka, in her 60s, takes me to an enormous packing shed, the place about 30 girls are already at work. They stand by conveyor belts, sorting salad greens that go into machines to be wrapped.
I’m given the duty of halving peeled yellow onions into plastic luggage. Then I’ve to peel and lower crimson onions into 3cm by 3cm items. I work with completely different girls, one after the opposite, and they’re all good. One even tells me to only peel the onions and she is going to do the slicing. Standing in the identical spot for therefore lengthy, the hours till the lunch break drag. Even going to the bathroom feels embarrassing as a result of it’s made clear that we shouldn’t do it fairly often.
Again on the hostel, everybody crowds across the two stoves to make their lunch. I chat with Sabina and Ewelina, a Polish mom and daughter. Sabina has three different kids again in Poland. One is a single mom and one other, Nela, is 12 years previous. Once I ask how Nela copes along with her mom being so far-off, Sabina says she is used to it and now considers Sabina’s sister, who she lives with, to be her mom. Sabina’s husband left her and the youngsters years in the past, so she wants an earnings. She sends cash to her sister, and likewise to her daughter and grandchild.
We chop and peel onions, peppers, tomatoes, root greens, pumpkins, white cabbage and cucumbers. My wrists begin to damage and the piles of cabbage appear to by no means finish.
That first day, the shift finishes at 6pm. Sabina provides to go to a retailer with me to get a number of issues I would like. She washes her hair and places on excessive heels, regardless that we’ll need to stroll 3km – virtually 2 miles – on the street to get there. I perceive that generally she needs to look good and really feel like an individual.
Alongside the way in which, she explains how the contracts are organised. It’s easy: you’re employed a sure variety of hours, however a decrease quantity is recorded. In consequence, you meet the authorized necessities for the variety of hours and the minimal hourly wage.
The contract I signal on about day three most likely corresponds to the German labour code. However I obtain two work report sheets. On one I write down the precise hours labored and on the opposite, the official sheet, I signal these which can be recorded: a most of 10 hours of labor a day, six days every week. I’d already heard about double reporting, however right here they current it to me as a matter in fact. Nobody explains what’s going on. In accordance with the official report, I would work till 4pm at present, and there was no work in any respect on Sunday.
No mounted hours right here
One of many worst issues about this job is that nobody can inform you when the shift will finish. “Please understand,” one of many girls replied after I ask if we might get Sunday afternoon off, “that there are no working hours, there is no Monday to Friday. Here they just tell you to go to work, and you never know when it’s going to end.”
My sore thumb hurts like hell, my palms are fully numb, my wrist hurts and I’ve to write down residence to get ibuprofen. The ache has come from chopping huge, laborious greens as quick as attainable, from carrying heavy crates stuffed with greens and from having perpetually moist palms.
Not solely is the work bodily demanding, however you’re in your toes for 14 hours a day. Then there’s not less than an hour or two of cleansing and cooking after which but extra cleansing up earlier than mattress. We share a rest room, so it’s full within the morning and within the night. My work garments already stink, most likely from the onions, however there’s just one washer so I should wait till night-time, when the machine is free. However I’d somewhat sleep.
It’s unusual how regular this bizarre existence appears after some time. Possibly that’s as a result of by the night, everybody is totally exhausted. There are a number of younger individuals and some girls of their 40s like me, however most are of their 50s. Some look older, however possibly they’re simply wrecked – it’s laborious to inform.
Inspectors arrive
It’s Sunday morning and Danka comes operating to say that there’s going to be a go to from the labour inspectorate. She explains the routine: when the inspectors ask us what number of hours a day we work, we should always say 9 or 10, and most significantly, that we get two breaks. Danka has purchased a brand new tablecloth for our kitchen so that it’ll look good for the inspection. Now we have to pay her €3 every for it.
Danka misplaced her job at a manufacturing facility in Poland in her 50s. Someday her boss known as her in and advised her that she was too previous for the job, so she went to work in Germany. She reveals me photographs of her kids, husband and grandchildren in Poland. A number of lovely photographs they ship her that she is just not in. She plans to return to her household in retirement.
Within the meals preparation corridor on Monday morning, the farm proprietor addresses us in German. We should not depart the corridor and we’re to work as if there is no such thing as a stress. So we work slowly, which feels unusual. The inspectors, two males, come by about 10am. I have a look at them, however they don’t see us; they stroll previous us as if we aren’t there. We end by 11.50am: we’ve labored six hours straight with out meals, water or cigarettes. Most of us didn’t go to the toilet that complete time as a result of we weren’t supposed to try this both.
Nearly everybody drinks right here. Out of loneliness and likewise as a result of there’s nothing else to do. I’ve lengthy argued that working circumstances by no means actually enhance so long as there are sufficient individuals on the planet to go to a different nation and work till they drop.
However the actuality of being surrounded by individuals who voluntarily spend 14 hours a day at work, and are grateful for these hours, is a unique matter. “At least we will earn more,” they are saying. After which within the night I see these torn faces, clean seems to be and a fatigue that appears to overwhelm them.
This week we don’t end any day earlier than 8pm. There’s pleasure when it’s lastly over, however on the identical time, happiness that so many hours have been put in. Right here my co-workers hope to understand their desires of shopping for an residence, offering for his or her previous age, serving to their kids. However some individuals keep for ever as a result of the work destroys their lives at residence. The times they don’t seem to be working they drink away.
The week from hell
I’ve discovered the work exhausting for the previous three weeks, however now the calls for have turn out to be hellish. Administration says there’s a sale on salads within the supermarkets, that’s why we’ve to work so laborious outdoors within the subject to get as a lot picked as attainable earlier than darkish. The hearsay is that once we return from the sector within the night, they are going to ship us to work within the packing corridor.
Ewelina, working subsequent to me, says we should always refuse to go to the packing corridor after darkish in the event that they ask us. However, she stresses, all of us need to refuse. “It is very important for us to be united,” she says. I nod that I perceive and promise to not spoil it. Then we get again to work in a rush to get as a lot accomplished as attainable earlier than darkish.
Twelve hours into the shift, one of many bosses activates the tractor lights and we proceed to work within the highlight, regardless that we’re all so drained we’re floundering. With sore, swollen palms, we proceed selecting the salads, placing them into crates and throwing them up into the truck. We proceed like this for greater than an hour, and regardless that some voices are saying that we simply can’t do it any extra, all of us hold working. We miss our probability to stage a riot. Defiance drowned in exhaustion.
They appear away
I left the farm after a month. I acquired a money fee of €1,500 (£1,275). My colleagues hugged me warmly and advised me to undoubtedly come again.
On the final afternoon, I have a look at the store the place greens, salads and broccoli from our farm are offered to the general public. The store seems to be like an natural paradise; it’s lovely and rustic and smells good. The greens carry a label to say the place they arrive from. Usually the label says Germany, however as a result of the store is on-site, it makes it appear as if the produce is definitely grown on the farm. But all the things, apart from the salads and broccoli, is introduced in wholesale and sometimes simply separated from rotten items of greens and washed properly.
Germans in huge costly automobiles come buying right here, and in the event that they occur to see considered one of us, they normally look away. I as soon as seen a scrutinising look that one of many prospects threw on the unpleasant dormitories, however we normally don’t transfer round within the yard when the store is open. We’re at work. I don’t even know if prospects can be inquisitive about what our working circumstances are.
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Saša Uhlová is a workers author on the Czech on-line each day Deník Alarm. Her reporting was supported by the The Endowment Fund for Unbiased Journalism. Names have been modified and the challenge has been made right into a movie directed by Apolena Rychlíková
