ANOTHER CASE of labour exploitation of Romanian workers has come to light after SEK union reported one employer for keeping 17 workers unpaid for the last four months and in squalid conditions.
During prime time news last night, the state broadcaster CyBC showed images of Romanian employees living in wooden huts and commercial containers on a construction site in the Moutayiaka area of Limassol. The makeshift huts were situated next to luxury homes being developed on the site.
According to CyBC, the workers were receiving just €60 a week, instead of the agreed sum in the contract, while their employer subtracted one euro per day from their wages for what he called accommodation.
SEK’s Limassol district secretary, Floros Florou, said the workers were left in such a bad state that the union had to take food for them to eat.
Florou said the workers stopped working in protest, and visited the union’s offices last week to report that they had not been paid their agreed wages in the last four months.
In turn, the union contacted the Labour Ministry’s labour relations officer in Limassol. A meeting was arranged last Monday with the employer who pledged to pay owed wages by February 12.
“Instead, the next day he went to the building site and told them to sign a paper saying they wished to leave their employment, and said he would close down the site,” said Florou.
The union man said his information was that the site had been around for the last four years. There were originally 25 Romanian workers there though now there are 17. He highlighted that the same employer had around 11 Romanians working on another site in Kyperounta who were too scared to communicate with the union out of fear, alleging that the employer threatened to sack them if they did.
“Our information shows these people came to Cyprus through an agent, using a Romanian office in cooperation with a Cypriot. They took €600 from each plus the air ticket when they get an hourly rate of €4 per hour,” said Florou.
Labour Minister Sotiroula Charalambous called on everyone to cooperate with the ministry to help tackle this “shameful” phenomenon. She said the union only informed her of the situation yesterday, adding that the welfare services in Limassol have been notified.
She questioned why SEK did not inform the ministry earlier. “Why didn’t they tell us days ago? When we have information, we carry out immediate inspections. And we seek the help of unions, which have a large network of people at workplaces so we can carry out as many inspections as possible,” she said, noting there are only 12 labour inspectors expected to carry out inspections of “tens of thousands of workplaces”.
The latest incident comes after another high-profile case in November 2009 when a Greek Cypriot man was arrested in connection with allegedly exploiting and trafficking around 140 Romanian workers in Tseri living in horrid condition and made to work for pittance with little money or even food.
“Some employers are exploiting the free movement of labour to bring workers on substandard terms and in squalid conditions,” said Charalambous yesterday.
According to CyBC, the company responsible for the 17 workers released an announcement saying that the last few days the workers have been under the influence of alcohol, adding that the employees chose and were not forced to stay in the provided accommodation.
