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crinaboros · 6 years

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INVESTIGATION: How Romania became an EU workers' rights 'guinea pig'

by CRINA BOROŞ, Investigate Europe | Euobserver, 24 October 2017

Photo: New labour laws have deprived 30 percent of Romanian workers of a collectively-bargained contract (Photo: Chris Goldberg/Flickr)

On the mornings of 10 May and 11 May in the Romanian city of Bistrita, in northern Transylvania, several thousand employees from the car cable manufacturing plant of Leoni - a multinational company headquartered in Germany - gathered outside the building.

They refused to start their shifts until managers conceded to talks about remunerated extra hours and a pay rise. A few days later, some of the protesters were sacked or pressured to sign resignation letters, according to union leaders and press reports at the time.

The difference between Leoni workers and 80 percent of Romania's workforce is that they at least had a workers' representative.

Since a Liberal-Democratic government passed new labour laws in 2011, rights protection has become the privilege of those working for large companies in Romania.

In practice, the law changes have turned the country into a paradox: a seemingly statistical success story with low unemployment and an economy on the rise, but a social disaster, with 40 percent of the country's workforce earning the minimum wage or under, according to experts.

The gross minimum wage in Romania is 1,450 lei (€320), with a net salary at 1,065 lei (€236).

How did Romania get here?

As the financial crisis gripped Europe, Romania agreed to a €20bn bailout package in March 2009. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Commission, the World Bank (WB), and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) raised the loan. IMF allocated the largest sum (€13bn).

The money came with strings attached: Romania was to deregulate its labour market, one step at a time, and diligently report back to lenders. This came at a time when western companies increased outsourcing to eastern European countries to cut costs.

Business organisations, such as the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) and the Foreign Investors' Council (FIC) among others, say they have been lobbying Romania's governments for many years for a more flexible workforce and labour market. In 2011, they got their wish.

Foreign banks, which dominate Romania's banking system, were sending cash to their mother branches. Unemployment was at its highest level since 2008. Cash-strapped and pressured by a troika (IMF, EU, World Bank) agreement to welcome business, the Romanian LibDem-led government passed a new social dialogue law and a new labour code.

The 2011 labour code discarded the old grid that forced businesses to take into consideration a person's expertise, qualifications and studies when determining their salary. Now the companies had only one hard rule to follow: the national minimum wage.

Leaders of the Cartel Alfa union's confederation, the National Union Block (BNS), the Retail Unions Federation and Conect Association agree this was a blow to salaries.

"In other countries, the minimum wage is the floor below which you shouldn't pay. In Romania, it is an orientation mark," says Stephan Meuser, head of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Romania, a political foundation close to Germany's social democratic party.

According to official figures, around 30 percent of total contracts pay the national minimum wage or under. Labour researchers believe that the real figure is around 40 percent. Either way, it is a huge proportion. In Germany, for example, only nine percent of workers are on the minimum wage.

"We are paid as if we were a country of unqualified workers," says Petru Dandea, Cartel Alfa confederation's secretary general.

Double-whammy

The second law passed in 2011 was also damaging to workers' rights.

The new social dialogue act has made it extremely difficult for anyone with a job to form a union, and it has prevented freelancers from either forming or joining one.

Specifically, it is necessary to have a minimum number of 15 employees from one firm, or from the same branch if the company has several, in order to form a union.

Moreover, the union cannot have bargaining power unless a formula of '50% + 1' of the company's employees join the union.

As a result, Cartel Alfa union confederation's membership dropped from over one million members in 2011 to about 260,000 in the last financial year.

The Retails Unions Federation was also one of the employees' representative organisations to lose out. Vasile Geogescu, Retail Unions Federation president, says that over 70 percent of Romania's retail industry counts less than 15 employees.

Imposing a minimum of 15 persons to form a union from the same company is against both EU laws, and International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions on the freedom of association, as well as against Romania's constitution.

This article of the 2011 law was contested by unions and the case is being considered by Romania's constitutional court, after Romania's ombudsman has filed a complaint earlier this year.

"We hope that this provision will be killed," says Meuser of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

But AmCham is pleased to see the law move in a direction more favourable for its members. The group's spokesperson Andreea Roman believes that the new code "has had a positive impact on Romania's economic growth.

"Meanwhile, the Foreign Investors Council admits that it was instrumental in proposing the new changes. It took part in "over 20 meetings with officials and other organisations" to discuss the 2011 labour code and policy on social dialogue, according to spokesman Radu Burnete.

The EU steps in...

The European Commission encouraged this practice. In 2012, a new government in Bucharest announced that it would undo the reforms and make national collective agreements possible again. Officials for Olli Rehn - then EU commissioner for economic and monetary affairs - together with the IMF, vetoed the proposal.

"We strongly urge the authorities to ensure that national wage agreements do not contain elements related to wages and/or reverse the progress achieved in the labour code in 2011," these officials wrote to the government in Bucharest.

AmCham issued a similar letter expressing their members' wishes regarding future changes to the 2011 law. The 'troika' lenders also called on officials not to introduce annual collective bargaining. The government gave up the plan.

Boiling it down to the numbers

Conect Association president Rodica Novac says the social dialogue policy was passed without any assessment of its public impact, or consideration on the realities of Romania's labour market.

"There are companies who don't favour the unionisation of their workers," argues Novac. "Japanese companies, for instance, are straightforward about it. Also, Auchan - a French-headquartered multinational supermarket chain - and the Schwartz group [German owner of retail brands Kaufland and Lidl] are anti-union employers," he said.

Under Romania's pre-2011 labour laws, which featured strong collective bargaining powers, Geogescu's confederation achieved a sector-wide contract in 2010.

"It secured social welfare aid, because many of the retail employees generally earn very close to the national minimum wage and needed additional support," he says. Another win was a holiday pay rate of 50 percent. "All of these are no longer possible and all the weight falls now on the collective bargaining contract struck at a company level".

Conect Association accused the then Democratic Liberal Party-led government headed by prime minister Emil Boc of having used the financial crisis context to eliminate the country's national collective bargaining contract, to attract Western companies wanting to balance their books with cheap, but skilled, labour.

Emil Boc was not available to comment for this article.

According to a report from Conect Association, in 2015, there were 468,374 enterprises with less than 15 employees, comprising in total over one million people.

The number of firms with less than 21 employees, the minimum necessary for collective bargaining, represent 95 percent of the employers in Romania (over 480,000 companies).

This means that 1,285,151 (30 percent) employees were de facto deprived of a collectively-bargained contract.

Collective bargaining - the main tool to negotiate better working conditions - has thus been restricted to the workers in large companies or of state departments.

Unions confederation leader Petru Dandea, who sat in the labour market deregulation negotiation meetings, said that the EU commission and the IMF were keen to push these changes through - although the commission did not specify how Romanian officials should relax their labour laws.

"I call it the anti-social dialogue law", Geogescu says. "It was meant for everything but social dialogue. It was passed to almost dissolve the collective bargaining contract".

'The responsibility of the former commission'

A July 2012 letter from corporate lobbyists at AmCham shows that when Romanian officials were reviewing the 2011 laws, the group sent its position. It requested, among other things, for the law to retain the minimum threshold of 15 members in orders for employees to form a union.

Head of the National Union Bloc (BNS), Dumitru Costin, has called the EU commission representatives "accomplices" of the business lobby.

Asked whether the commission interfered in wage setting, Costin said: "Of course wage-setting was discussed. The only wage-setting topic the commission is interested in is the mechanism behind establishing the national minimum wage".

In a report in 2012, the commission said that the bargaining system should be reformed "in a less centralised way" in order to "result in an overall reduction in the wage setting power of trade unions".

But the current social affairs commissioner, Marianne Thyssen told Investigative Europe that this position was "the responsibility of the former commission."

"That is not my position and the current commission stands for a socially-balanced policy," she said in an interview.

"Representatives of both employers' associations and unions consider that Romania was used as a 'guinea pig' by foreign investors with the support of the troika, to decentralise collective bargaining radically," according to a European Journal of Industrial Relations study by Aurora Trif, a social scientist from Dublin University and lecturer in human resources management.

According to a union official quoted in the study, "all the labour market reforms [in Romania] were initiated and adopted at the recommendation of two players; one is the American Chamber of Commerce and the other one is the Foreign Investors' Council. The Romanian model has been exported to other central and east European countries and foreign investors wish to extend it into western European countries". AmCham and the FIC say they are part of a larger group of at least 17 different business lobby organisations.

The result of this has been "catastrophic" for Romanian society, says Vasile Gogescu.

"We're slowly becoming the working poor," Geogescu said. "Two employees earning each the national minimum wage, if they start a family [together], say they have a child, it's catastrophic. They cannot pay their bills by working, and I'm not talking about paying for whims, but about simply affording everyday basics".

In addition to Crina Boros, journalists Wojciech Ciesla, Ingeborg Eliassen, Nikolas Leontopoulos, Maria Maggiore, Leila Minano, Paulo Pena, Harald Schumann, Elisa Simantke also contributed to this investigation for Investigate Europe.Investigate Europe is supported by Germany's Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Rudolf-Augstein-Stiftung and Stiftung Hübner&Kennedy, the Norwegian foundation Fritt Ord and the Open Society Initiative for Europe.

ORIGINAL PUBLICATION: EUOBSERVER - https://euobserver.com/social/139515

#labour #labour rights #gig economy #Romania #World Bank #imf #unions #labour markets #national minimum wage #financial crisis #politics #feature #labour laws #employment #precarious work #euobserver #crina boros #INVESTIGATE EUROPE

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crinaboros · 6 years

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Where have all the mothers gone?

by CRINA BOROŞ, Investigate Europe | The Black Sea, 5 October 2017

Romania’s parents are leaving to work abroad in the absence of a living wage at home, and children are paying the price

The drive from the northwest Romanian city of Iasi to the village of Liteni is a winding route through an open vista of sunflowers. Tractors work the fields next to peasants driving battered horse-and-carts, heavy with hay. On a fallow meadow outside the village, a shepherd with a tanned face holds up a gnarled wooden crook, and calls to his flock. The sheep pass by a lake, recently restocked with carp, and now open for fishing.

Crossing a narrow bridge into the village, we drive along roads that kick up clouds of dust, between rows of houses - new and old. Many are unfinished, with bright tiled roofs, and exteriors of plaster, standing on land scattered with building tools and broken pieces of fence.

We follow the road to the heart of the village, accompanied by the local school headteacher, George Moga, who points to the buildings.

“That house was made with money from Greece,” Moga says. “That one - with earnings from Italy.”

It’s a torrid July day and Moga takes us to a smallholding which breeds pigs and chickens. He introduces the owners, a family led by father Costel Butnaru.

“Come here in the strawberry season,” he says, “you won't find the shadow of a woman in this village!”

Photo: After working abroad family reunited in Liteni, Iasi county. Costel Butnaru (left), Lavinia Tihulcă, Petre Butnaru, Gabi Butnaru, Mihaela Butnaru and two nephews. Credit: Johnny Green, Investigate Europe, July 2017, Liteni, Romania

“It may be tough abroad, but being left behind is worse.”

Costel’s wife Vasilica, 44, has been on the road between home and work for eight years. She travels from Romania to Almonte, Huelva, in southwest Spain, where she shares a room with five women. From March to mid-summer, they pick strawberries and in September, they prepare plants for the coming season.

“I got left behind to take care of the children,” says Costel. “I taught them how to write, took their hands in mine and we drew letters together. I was trying my best to be there for them, and make sure they have what they need.”

A decade ago Vasilica was a housewife, and Costel was earning ‘nice money’ working in construction in Bucharest. But since the financial crisis of 2008, he could not find stable employment.

Sometimes there is work in the vineyards of nearby wine-maker Cotnari. Over 35 kilometres away is a car upholstery factory in Lețcani, but they only pay the minimum wage, plus food vouchers. Costel would need to commute by bicycle, even at night, and in weathers that can reach minus 20 degrees.

“It may be tough abroad,” says Costel, “but being left behind is worse.”

Romanians now has one of the highest percentages of its citizens working abroad in Europe, and many come from rural areas such as Liteni, where work is scarce or poorly-paid.

The villagers moved abroad to work in building, fruit-picking, housekeeping or care work in Italy, Spain, Germany and Cyprus.

But since the construction boom in southern Europe collapsed in 2008, the jobs available favour skills usually associated with women - which means a new phenomenon is emerging in Romania: villages with few - if any - women of working age, and large numbers of children growing up without a mother.

“We didn’t have our Sunday rest. We even worked on Easter Day.”

13 year old Gabi Butnaru has just finished 6th grade in the village of Liteni.

“Mommy used to help me read,” she says. “Sometimes she would help me with homework.”

But her mother has been leaving for work abroad since her daughter was in kindergarten. This year, on 9 March, a day after International Women’s Day, she left to pick strawberries and raspberries on a farm in Lucena, Spain.

Gabi’s life changed. When her father was out farming, she had to learn how to bake potatoes, make soup, and clean and feed the pigs, cows and chickens, before she could find the time to study.

“It was tough,” says Gabi, her eyes welling up with tears. “Finding the energy to do it all, to do it well…” With a straight face, she starts crying.

Her mother Mihaela is now back in Romania. It was tough for her to be away from home, among foreigners, and working for a boss with high expectations, whose language she did not speak.

She shared a room with four other women on the farm. Monthly rents in the nearby Spanish town were around 250 Euro per month, and the women needed to keep this cash for home.

Mihaela worked to exhaustion.

“We didn’t have our Sunday rest,” she says. “We even worked on Easter Day!”

Collecting strawberries is painful work. Pickers must bend over seven days a week, up to eight hours a day, plus overtime, and need to move fast through the bushes.

“I only got up to move when I carried the crates of fruit,” Mihaela says. “There is no stool to sit on, and nowhere to sit at all. Some women can rest on their fists, but I can’t. My back is killing me! When pain cuts like a knife, you feel like throwing in the job!”

Her husband Petre runs through the list of drugs his 33 year-old wife takes to Spain: painkiller Ketonal for backache, paracetamol for toothache, valerian herb for stress relief, and aspirin to increase the blood flow.

Despite the physical pain at work, and the emotional pain at home, Mihaela says: “We don’t have a choice: we need the money!”

Her husband broke his left leg 12 years ago, and cannot bend it. Now he works odd jobs, such as shoeing horses, welding and ploughing.

“He earns enough for bread and a bottle of cooking oil,” says Mihaela. “But with these earnings, child benefit and tiny aid from the local government, one can’t afford much.”

The family sometimes landed in debt, which she needed to pay off, and meant leaving abroad for longer, while her injured husband stayed at home with her daughter.

“A child is suffering,” she says. “She’s doing hard household work and yet she’s only a child. She shouldn’t be exploited, she’s so young! She’s had a lot to bear from a very young age!” Mihaela’s voice fades and tears resume. “I can’t bear being apart from them!”

Gabi nods through her sobbing, and admits she was crying often on the phone to her mother, asking Mihaela to return. Will she let her mother go abroad again?

Photo: Revisiting separation: Gabriela Butnaru (13), Lavinia Tihulca (13), Mihaela Butnaru (33). Credit: Johnny Green, Investigate Europe, July 2017, Liteni, Romania

“No!” Gabi says without hesitation, wiping her face dry. “All I want is us all to be at home, united, and to be a happy family.”

Revisiting separation: Gabriela Butnaru (13), Lavinia Tihulca (13), Mihaela Butnaru (33) (photo: Johnny Green, Investigate Europe)

“School, clean, cook, do homework, sleep, repeat”

13 year-old Lavinia’s mother left to Spain for the first time this year to pick fruit, and she had to take on her mother’s duties. This was stressful, as Lavinia loves to feel prepared for the school day, which lasts from 8 am to 2 pm. “Then I would clean, cook, do homework, sleep,” she says, “get up in the morning. Get dressed. Brush hair. Go to school. Repeat.”

She is in a class where 13 of her fellow pupils from 28 have parents working abroad. In many cases, this has ruined marriages, and the parents divorced.

“These pupils are not how they used to be,” says Lavinia. “They’re more distant, more reserved, less childish. Some of their grades are falling. All they can think about is the break-up of their parents.”

The number of children growing up with one or two parents working abroad is in the 100,000s in Romania, and could account for around ten per cent of all kids in the country, though true statistics are sketchy.

At the primary and middle school in Liteni, 115 pupils from 350 have at least one parent working abroad. The headteacher George Moga says economic migration scars many of the children left behind.

“We’ve experienced cases of child burn-out,” Moga says. “Parents who work abroad tell children that they are doing this for them. Meanwhile, the child’s sole duty is to study hard, so children who have to learn to manage without a parent’s help or supervision, drown themselves in study or household chores, and often end up unable to smile.”

Photo: “We’ve experienced cases of child burn-out,” says Liteni headteacher George Moga. Credit: Johnny Green, Investigate Europe, July 2017, Liteni, Romania

Nation on the Minimum Wage

The United Nations believes around 3.4 million Romanians have emigrated since the fall of Communism - 17 per cent of the country’s citizens.

Every village in the country has seen its share of work migrants - officially there are now over one million Romanians are in Italy, 900,000 in Spain, 600,000 in Germany and 180,000 in the UK, but the real figure is greater.

At first glance, an observer would ask whether this was due to Romania’s rapid deindustrialisation following Communism, which must have witnessed a surge in unemployment.

But on paper, only 4.18 per cent of Romanians are jobless. One of the lowest numbers in the EU. So why do they move abroad?

Firstly, there is no job security. Only 5.1 per cent of the working poor aged 16 to 64 have a permanent employment contact.

Secondly, wages are too low. The country has the second lowest minimum wage in the EU - at a net value of 1,065 Lei (232 Euro) per month. Over 230,000 citizens earn less than the minimum wage. The state has to top up the difference with benefits.

Thirdly, too many employers pay this rock-bottom salary. According to Labour Inspection agency data, around a third of contracts covering full and part time jobs pay the national minimum wage or under.

Romania’s average (median) salary, the net cash that families take home at the end of the day - is the EU’s lowest - at 2,448 Euro per annum, and has been since the crisis of 2008. Bulgaria beats it with 3,151 Euro, according to Eurostat.

This is set against the fact that prices of goods and energy costs are more or less the same as in western Europe.

“An increased number of sexual abuse cases”

This behaviour of the children left behind changes. A 2012 UNICEF report, and a Soros Foundation study found that parent migration was one of the main causes of children leaving school early. In general, one in five kids in Romania leave school early. This rate is on the rise - to 19.1 per cent in 2015, according to an EU report.

Director of the Social Assistance and Child Protection Services (DGASPC) in Iaşi Niculina Karacsony says a major problem is that many children have not been prepared by their parents for a temporary separation.

“We’re not condemning parents who leave to earn a living abroad,” says Karacsony. “But we are condemning those who do so without preparing their children for the separation, and who do not communicate often with them.”

This is backed up by Alex Gulei, executive director of Alternative Sociale, an NGO in Iaşi which works closely with DGASPC. “One thing that comes up again and again is that they hate when parents forget to Skype at 7 pm as they are expecting, or promise to return on a date when they don’t,” says Gulei. “They hate it when parents do not deliver on their word.”

In the most extreme cases, say experts, kids left behind by parents have died following irreversible depression. Another problem is domestic violence. Among the cases of children of migrant workers that are referred to DGASPC Iaşi, its director stresses “an increased number in cases of sexual abuse”.

This most commonly happens within the family, and when mothers are not at home. Some fathers have not seen their wives for a long time, and have taken to drink, while brothers have abused their siblings. Victims have been as young as three years’ old.

“I grew up with my parents fighting. This was our normal.”

19 year-old Andreea’s mother worked abroad in Italy during her teenage years, leaving her and her younger sister with a father who took to drink and violence.

“I grew up with my parents fighting,” she says. “This was our normal. I was glad when mommy left because my father was brutal with her. Finding work in Italy was her escape.“

Now she is a volunteer organising social activities at the Alaturi de Voi Foundation, which aims to reduce teenage pregnancies and drug abuse, and offers young people social and psychological support.

Photo: “I asked my mother to come home immediately, but because we would be left with no money, I had to wait for her to save for one more year,” Andreea, now 19. Credit: Johnny Green, Investigate Europe, July 2017, Liteni, Romania

Just before Andreea became a teenager, her mother, a sales assistant, needed money because she was in debt after defaulting on bank loans. Her earnings from work in Italy covered the interest payments, and she could send cash home only for food.

“But there would be times when father would waste all the money on smoking or another of his addictions,” she says. ”He became jealous, and suspected my mother of cheating.”

Her mother telephoned often and saw her daughters once or twice a year. But having to step into her mother’s role, take care of her little sister and the house, meant Andreea would be fainting, and feeling sick, and soon developed gastritis.

”It was mainly because of stress, but also poor nutrition,” she says. “I was young when mother left, I couldn't cook and was eating instant soup all the time.”

During this time, the teenager was admitted to hospital for five times with gastritis.

As her parents’ marriage disintegrated, her father began hitting his two daughters.

”He filed for a divorce, thinking this would bring my mother home and make her stay,” she says. “Mother saw this as her chance to escape a bad marriage and she took it.”

As the separation began, Andreea’s father kicked his two kids out of the house. They did not even have time to pack their belongings. In shock, they sought refuge at their grandparents’ house, where - due to the age gap - they would have constant arguments.

“I asked my mother to come home immediately, as I could not look after myself,” she says. “But because we would be left with no money, I had to wait for her to save for one more year.”

Alexandra says that she has lived in “total stress” most of the years spent away from her mother.

“If someone is confrontational or raises their voice, I’m in tears,” she says. “I cry out randomly and I don’t understand why.”

ORIGINAL PUBLICATION - The Black Sea - http://m.theblacksea.eu/stories/article/en/mothers-leave-romania#

Photography: Johnny Green

#migration #labour migration #gig economy #national minimum wage #Romania #crina boros #iasi #liteni #johnny green #investigate europe #the black sea #children #home

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crinaboros · 5 years

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How data can add to your journalism - a critical approach

The 2nd Data Journalism Handbook edition is an international collaboration that brings together the thinking behind the of work of many of us in the #CAR | #DDJ arena. Did you browse it yet? https://datajournalismhandbook.org/

#data journalism #handbook #journalism #training #collaborative journalism #author #crina boros

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crinaboros · 6 years

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Zerschlagenes Recht

by CRINA BOROŞ, Investigate Europe | der Freitag, November (print) / December (online) 2017

Rumänien Ein Machtkartell aus EU, IWF und Konzernen hat die Finanzkrise genutzt, um das europäische Land zur Hölle für Arbeitnehmer zu machen

Photo: Gewerkschaftlern bleibt in Rumänien immer öfter die Luft weg, Daniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty Images

Rumänien gilt in der EU als Wirtschaftswunderland. Seine Arbeitslosenrate liegt bei fünf Prozent, die Wachstumsrate des Bruttoinlandsprodukts – mehr als fünf Prozent – gehört zu den höchsten in der gesamten Union. Die Zahlen sind eindeutig: Das Land boomt.

Doch ein genauerer Blick ins Innere des Landes zeigt das Gegenteil: lähmende Armut, miserable Arbeitsbedingungen, niedrige Kaufkraft und ein massenhafter Wegzug von Menschen im arbeitsfähigen Alter aus allen Regionen. Das Land ist zum Traum von Ökonomen und zum Albtraum für seine Arbeiter geworden. Ein maßgeblicher Grund dafür: Rumänien hat billige und flexible Arbeitskräfte, die ihren Arbeitgebern machtlos gegenüberstehen. Millionen kommen nicht über den Mindestlohn hinaus. Jeder dritte Rumäne hat laut Arbeitsvertrag nur Anspruch auf den gesetzlichen Mindestlohn; Rumänien gleicht einem riesigen Pool an billigen und verzweifelten Arbeitskräften mitten in der EU. Wie konnte es dazu kommen?

Es waren der Zwang des Internationalen Währungsfonds (IWF) und der Europäischen Kommission sowie die intensive Lobbyarbeit ausländischer Investoren, die die rumänische Regierung dazu brachten, den Arbeitsmarkt zu liberalisieren, die Verhandlungsposition der Gewerkschaften zu schwächen, mit den Unternehmen angemessene Löhne auszuhandeln, und die Menschen aus festen in prekäre Arbeitsverhältnisse zu drängen. Arbeitsmarktforscher schätzen, dass mehr als 40 Prozent der rumänischen Arbeiterinnen und Angestellten für den gesetzlichen Mindestlohn arbeiten, wenn man auch inoffizielle Jobs berücksichtigt. Den jüngsten Zahlen der Regierung zufolge sehen 30 Prozent aller Arbeitsverträge den Mindestlohn vor oder liegen darunter. Das ist noch immer eine gewaltige Zahl, in Deutschland sind es gerade einmal neun Prozent. „In anderen Ländern stellt der Mindestlohn die Grenze dar, die man nicht unterschreiten sollte. In Rumänien fungiert er als Richtwert“, sagt der Leiter der SPD-nahen Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Bukarest, Stephan Meuser.

Was aber hindert die Regierung daran, dafür zu sorgen, dass die großen Konzerne aus Westeuropa, die ihre Produktion und Dienstleistungen nach Rumänien verlagern, mehr als nur den Mindestlohn zahlen? Ihre eigenen Gesetze.

Der Angriff auf die Rechte der abhängig Beschäftigten begann im Jahr 2008. Als der weltweite Finanzcrash Europa erreichte, stürzte er Rumänien in eine Liquiditätskrise. Weil die Regierung dringend Geld brauchte, stimmte sie im März 2009 einem 20-Milliarden-Euro-Kredit des IWF, der Europäischen Kommission, der Weltbank und der Europäischen Bank für Wiederaufbau und Entwicklung (EBWE) zu. Der IWF leistet mit 13 Milliarden den größten Beitrag.

Es handelte sich nicht um Almosen, der Kredit war an Bedingungen geknüpft: Die Geldgeber forderten, dass Rumänien seinen Arbeitsmarkt dereguliert. Einer der Teilnehmer an den Verhandlungen war der Generalsekretär des Gewerkschaftsdachverbandes Cartel Alfa, Petru Dandea. Bei den Treffen hätten die Europäische Kommission und der IWF auf die Flexibilisierung des Arbeitsmarktes gedrängt, sagt er, auch wenn die Kommission nicht näher ausgeführt habe, wie genau Rumänien sein Arbeitsrecht lockern soll. Ein technischer Vermerk des IWF aus dem Jahr 2010 zeigt jedoch, dass IWF-Expertinnen dabei mithalfen, das Tarifrecht zu verändern – also die Lohnverhandlungen zwischen Beschäftigten, Gewerkschaften, Unternehmern und der Regierung –, das bestehende Arbeitsrecht zu überprüfen und ältere Bestimmungen zu ersetzen. „Noch vor Ende Dezember (nach den Konsultationen mit den Sozialpartnern und dem IWF, der Weltbank und der Europäischen Kommission) werden wir ein überarbeitetes Gesetz über das Tarifrecht und ein verbessertes Arbeitsgesetz ins Parlament einbringen“, heißt es in einem Dokument des damaligen rumänischen Finanzministers Gheorghe Ialomiţianu.

Null-Stunden-Verträge

Ohne jegliche öffentliche Debatte führten die politisch Verantwortlichen in Rumänien drakonische Gesetze ein, die darauf abzielten, Arbeiterrechte zu beschneiden und die gewerkschaftlich organisierte Arbeiterschaft zurückzudrängen. Schätzungen der Interessenvertretung Asociaţia Conect zufolge ist der Anteil der Arbeiter, die Mitglied in einer Gewerkschaft sind, von fast neunzig Prozent im Jahr 1991 auf rund zwanzig Prozent der Belegschaften im Jahr 2015 zurückgegangen. 2011 strich die von der Demokratisch-Liberalen Partei geführte Regierung von Premierminister Emil Boc den jährlich ausgehandelten „Nationalen Vertrag“ aus dem Arbeitsgesetz. Dieser Vertrag enthielt eine Gehaltstabelle, die Unternehmen dazu verpflichtete, den Bildungsstand, das Niveau der Ausbildung, die beruflichen Fähigkeiten und die Erfahrung der Beschäftigten bei der Berechnung der Löhne zu berücksichtigen.

Seitdem diese Regelung beseitigt wurde, müssen die Unternehmer sich nur noch an ein Gesetz halten: den Mindestlohn. Die Vorsitzenden des Nationalen Gewerkschaftsdachverbandes Cartel Alfa, des Nationalen Gewerkschaftsverbandes (BNS) und des Verbandes der Einzelhandelsgewerkschaften sowie der Asociaţia Conect sind sich einig, dass dies den Löhnen einen gewaltigen Schlag versetzte und den Weg zu einem Land ebnete, in dem rund ein Drittel der Beschäftigten mit einem Arbeitsvertrag für den Mindestlohn arbeiten muss.

Zu dieser Entwicklung beigetragen haben auch große multinationale Konzerne. Petru Dandea und anderen Gewerkschaftsführern zufolge haben Lobbyorganisationen wie der Foreign Investors Council (FIC) und die Amerikanische Handelskammer seit 2002 für einen flexibleren Arbeitsmarkt geworben – also bereits lange vor dem Crash. Die Amerikanische Handelskammer ist stolz darauf, dass das Arbeitsrecht sich in eine Richtung verändert hat, die es für ihre Mitglieder weitaus vorteilhafter macht. Die Sprecherin der Organisation, Andreea Roman, ist heute der Ansicht, dass das neue Gesetz „einen positiven Einfluss auf Rumäniens Wirtschaftswachstum“ gehabt habe.

Unterdessen räumt der Foreign Investors Council ein, ebenfalls bei der Erarbeitung der „Reformen“ behilflich gewesen zu sein. Die Lobbyorganisation habe an „über 20 Zusammenkünften mit Verantwortungsträgern und anderen Organisationen“ teilgenommen, um das Arbeitsgesetz von 2011 und die Politik des Sozialdialogs, wie das Tarifrecht in Rumänien genannt wird, zu diskutieren, sagt Sprecher Radu Burnete. Der FIC reichte seine Vorschläge 2010 ein und forderte unter anderem eine Erleichterung von Kurzzeitverträgen, insbesondere von befristeten und sogenannten Zero-Hour-Verträgen. Bei Letzteren ist eine Mindestarbeitszeit von null Stunden vertraglich festgelegt. Das würde es den Unternehmen ermöglichen, Voll- oder Teilzeitverträge zu vermeiden und Arbeit auf Abruf einzuführen. Mit anderen Worten: Die Unternehmen müssten keine langfristigen Verträge mehr mit ihren Angestellten eingehen, sondern könnten diese – nur einen Tag im Voraus – per SMS für die benötigte Arbeitszeit einbestellen. Das könnten acht Stunden sein, oder auch null, und wälzt de facto das unternehmerische Risiko zu einem beträchtlichen Teil von den Arbeitgebern auf die Arbeitnehmer ab.

Das System der Tarifverhandlungen wurde durch das neue Gesetz „zerschlagen“, klagt Petru Dandea. Seit 2011 seien vier Fünftel aller Lohnverhandlungen, die auf Unternehmensebene stattfanden, ohne legitime Vertretung der Beschäftigten abgeschlossen worden. Nun erhalte nahezu ein Drittel aller Beschäftigten den Mindestlohn: mehr als 1,8 Millionen, wenn Freiberufler mit eingerechnet werden. „Wir werden bezahlt, als wären wir ein Land von unqualifizierten Arbeitern“, beschwert sich der Gewerkschafter.

Die Europäische Kommission hat genau diese Entwicklung nach Kräften unterstützt. Als 2012 die neue Regierung unter Premierminister Victor Ponta in Bukarest bekannt gab, dass sie die Reformen zurückzunehmen gedenke und wieder landesweite Tarifverträge ermöglichen werde, machten Mitarbeiter von Olli Rehn, damals EU-Kommissar für Wirtschaft und Finanzen, zusammen mit dem IWF umgehend gegen den Entwurf mobil.

„Wir halten die Behörden dringend dazu an, sicherzustellen, dass nationale Tarifverträge keine Elemente enthalten, die sich auf Löhne beziehen und/oder die Fortschritte rückgängig machen, die mit dem Arbeitsgesetz von 2011 erreicht wurden“, schrieben sie an die Regierung. Die Amerikanische Handelskammer verschickte eine ähnlich gelagerte Protestnote. Die Gläubiger-Troika aus IWF, Europäischer Kommission und Weltbank rief die Verantwortlichen auch dazu auf, keine jährlichen kollektiven Tarifverhandlungen einzuführen. Ergebnis: Die Regierung knickte ein und gab den Plan auf.

Mit dieser Einmischung meldeten Rehn und seine Mitarbeiter Ansprüche an, denen jede Rechtsgrundlage fehlt. Artikel 153 des Lissabonner Vertrags der EU, der die Aufgaben der Union in Bezug auf Sozialpolitik und arbeitsrechtliche Standards beschreibt und die Union sogar dazu anhält, sich für die „Vertretung und kollektive Wahrnehmung der Arbeitnehmerinteressen“ einzusetzen, besagt auch, dass die EU und ihre Behörden über keine Kompetenz verfügen, sich in Lohnfragen einzumischen. Gewiss, in dem oben zitierten Brief „halten“ Rehns Mitarbeiter nur „dringend dazu an“ – sie schreiben es offiziell nicht vor, auch wenn der Subtext sehr wohl einem Diktat gleichkommt.

Tatsächlich versuchte die EU-Kommission Zeugenaussagen zufolge, in wesentlichen Fragen Einfluss zu nehmen. Der Vorsitzende von Rumäniens Nationalem Gewerkschaftsverband BNS, Dumitru Costin, der bei vielen Verhandlungen mit der Troika anwesend war, bestätigte, dass die EU-Kommission auch bei den Lohnabschlüssen mitredete. „Natürlich wurde über Lohnabschlüsse diskutiert! Das einzige Thema, für das sich die Kommission diesbezüglich interessiert, ist der Mechanismus, der zur Festsetzung des nationalen Mindestlohnes dient“, sagt Costin.

Verfassung, na und?

Costin und Dandea stimmen auch darin überein, dass die EU-Kommission sich während der Verhandlungen zwischen rumänischer Regierung und Troika den Vorschlägen der Wirtschaftslobbyisten zur Veränderung des Arbeitsrechts nicht entgegengestellt habe. „Sie waren Komplizen“, sagt Costin. Olli Rehn, der heute Vorstandsmitglied der finnischen Zentralbank ist, lehnte es ab, zum Vorwurf der Einmischung in die Arbeitsmarktreformen Rumäniens und zu der Frage, ob die EU damit ihre Kompetenzen überschritten habe, Stellung zu beziehen.

Sie wollen in Rumänien eine Gewerkschaft gründen? Das sollte so schwer nicht sein. In der rumänischen Verfassung heißt es: „Bürger können sich frei in politischen Parteien, Gewerkschaften, Unternehmerverbänden sowie anderen Formen von Vereinigungen zusammenschließen.“ Dies ist auch durch internationales Recht gefordert. Die Europäische Menschenrechtskonvention etwa gibt Beschäftigten „das Recht, Gewerkschaften zu gründen, um die Interessen ihrer Mitglieder zu schützen“. Die Reform des rumänischen Arbeitsrechts konnte das nicht aufhalten.

Vor 2011 konnten 15 Personen desselben Berufes, die in derselben Branche für verschiedene Unternehmen arbeiteten, eine Gewerkschaft gründen. Das neue „Gesetz für den sozialen Dialog“ aus dem Jahr 2011 besagt nun, dass die 15 für denselben Betrieb arbeiten müssen und keine Freiberufler sein dürfen. Doch selbst wenn die Beschäftigten es schaffen, eine Gewerkschaft zu gründen, ist es sehr wahrscheinlich, dass diese ohne Einfluss bleibt. Wenn eine Gewerkschaft innerhalb eines Betriebs höhere Löhne aushandeln möchte, müssen mehr als 50 Prozent der Beschäftigten dieses Betriebs ihr angehören – bei großen Einzelhandelsunternehmen, die in Rumänien 15.000 und mehr Leute beschäftigen, ist das für eine Gewerkschaft eine ganze Menge.

„Jedes Jahr nimmt die Verhandlungsmacht der Beschäftigten ab“, sagt Stephan Meuser von der Ebert-Stiftung, „und man gerät so in eine Situation, in der grob die Hälfte der Leute nur den Mindestlohn bezieht.“ Rumänische Gewerkschaften werfen der Regierung von Ministerpräsident Emil Boc aus der Demokratisch-Liberalen Partei, der zwischen 2008 und 2012 im Amt war, vor, Gesetze verabschiedet zu haben, die ihnen den Zutritt zum Verhandlungstisch versperrt und immer mehr Beschäftigte in die Prekarität gebracht haben. „Ich nenne es das Gesetz über den asozialen Dialog“, sagt der Vorsitzende des Verbandes der Einzelhandelsgewerkschaften, Vasile Gogescu. „Es wurde verabschiedet, um den kollektiven Tarifvertrag so gut wie hinfällig zu machen.“

Lidl mischt mit

Die Zahlen der Gewerkschaften zeichnen ein düsteres Bild von den Folgen des „Gesetzes über den sozialen Dialog“ von 2011. Den Boom-Bereich des Einzelhandels trifft es besonders. Mindestens 800.000 Werktätige sind in Geschäften und Warenhäusern beschäftigt, die in den vergangenen drei Jahren das auf Binnennachfrage gestützte Wachstum entscheidend mitgetragen haben. Davon arbeiten Gogescu zufolge über 600.000 Menschen für Unternehmen mit weniger als 15 Angestellten.

Das aber bedeutet, dass drei Viertel der schwächsten und angreifbarsten Beschäftigten Rumäniens der Zugang zu gewerkschaftlichem Schutz verwehrt bleibt. Die Angestellten haben auch keinerlei Mitspracherecht bei ihren Arbeitsanforderungen. „Zahllose Aufgaben und Verantwortlichkeiten türmen sich auf“, sagt Gogescu, „und Verträge enden mit den Worten ,sowie jede andere Aufgabe, die von einem direkten Vorgesetzten zugewiesen wird‘. Das bedeutet, dass man keine Tätigkeit, die einem zugeteilt wird, ablehnen kann.“

Dies verstößt gegen internationales Arbeitsrecht. Die Vorgabe, sich erst ab einer bestimmten Betriebsstärke gewerkschaftlich organisieren zu dürfen, steht im Widerspruch sowohl zum EU-Recht als auch zu den Konventionen der Internationalen Arbeitsorganisation (ILO) und dem Recht auf Koalitionsfreiheit. Die Gewerkschaften haben deswegen auch gegen den betreffenden Paragrafen des Gesetzes geklagt; der Fall wird vom rumänischen Verfassungsgericht geprüft. „Wir hoffen, dass diese Regelung wieder gekippt wird“, sagt Meuser.

Einem Bericht der Asociaţia Conect zufolge gab es 2015 fast 500.000 Unternehmen mit weniger als 15 Angestellten. Zusammengenommen macht das 1,29 Millionen Beschäftigte. Diese gewaltige Zahl von Angestellten muss also ohne den Schutz eines Tarifvertrages auskommen. Die Vorsitzende von Conect, Rodica Novac, ist überzeugt, die Änderungen des Tarifrechts seien verabschiedet worden, ohne sich der gesellschaftlichen Folgen bewusst zu sein. Die realen Gegebenheiten des rumänischen Arbeitsmarktes seien überhaupt nicht berücksichtigt worden.

„Es gibt Unternehmen, die die gewerkschaftliche Organisierung der Beschäftigten nicht gerne sehen“, sagt Novac. „Japanische Unternehmen sagen das zum Beispiel ganz offen. Auch Auchan, eine Supermarktkette mit Hauptsitz in Frankreich, und die Schwartz-Gruppe, also der Eigentümer der Marken Kaufland und Lidl, mögen keine Gewerkschaften.“

Der Generalsekretär von Cartel Alfa sagt, die Gewerkschaften hätten sich in der Phase, in der die Gesetzesänderungen implementiert wurden, zehn Mal mit den Troika-Gläubigern getroffen und ihnen erklärt, „welche Folgen die geplanten Änderungen haben würden: Tarifverträge würden verschwinden, und die Zahl der zum Mindestlohn arbeitenden Menschen rapide zunehmen“.

Dies alles führt zu der Frage, ob die Deregulierung à la Rumänien einen Einzelfall darstellt, oder ob sie nicht auch in anderen Ländern Fuß fassen könnte. Eine Studie der Dublin University argumentiert, dass das Land dafür eine Art Versuchskaninchen gewesen sei. Lobbyisten multinationaler Unternehmen hätten die Finanzkrise von 2008 genutzt, um das Arbeitsrecht des Landes so zu verändern, dass es in der EU als „Testfall“ eines Staates mit ausgehöhltem Arbeitsrecht funktioniere.

„Vertreter sowohl der Unternehmerseite als auch der Gewerkschaften glauben, dass Rumänien von ausländischen Investoren mit Unterstützung der sogenannten Troika als ,Versuchskaninchen‘ genutzt wurde, um Tarifverträge radikal zu dezentralisieren“, so eine Studie des European Journal of Industrial Relations von 2016, die von der Sozialwissenschaftlerin Aurora Trif von der Dublin University verfasst wurde.

Trif zitiert in ihrer Arbeit einen anonymen Gewerkschaftsvertreter: „Alle Arbeitsmarktreformen (in Rumänien) wurden auf Empfehlung von zwei Akteuren hin initiiert und angenommen. Einer davon ist die Amerikanische Handelskammer und der andere ist der Foreign Investors Council. Das rumänische Modell wurde in andere zentral- und osteuropäische Länder exportiert und ausländische Investoren würden es gerne auch in westeuropäische exportieren.“

Die unternehmerfreundlichen Gesetzesänderungen von 2011, die zu Lasten der Beschäftigten gingen, haben Vasile Gogescu zufolge „katastrophale“ Auswirkungen auf die Gesellschaft. „Nehmen Sie zwei Beschäftigte, die beide den nationalen Mindestlohn verdienen: Wenn sie eine Familie gründen und ein Kind bekommen, sind sie nicht in der Lage, ihre Rechnungen mit ihrer eigenen Arbeit zu bezahlen, sie können sich noch nicht einmal leisten, was sie zum täglichen Leben brauchen. Wir werden langsam zu Working Poor.“

ORIGINAL PUBLICATION: DER FREITAG - https://www.freitag.de/autoren/the-guardian/zerschlagenes-recht

#Rumänien #INVESTIGATE EUROPE #crina boros #Machtkartell #eu #iwf #finanzkrise #working poor #Null-Stunden-Verträge

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crinaboros · 6 years

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Arbeitsmigration in Rumänien: Dorf ohne Mütter

by CRINA BOROŞ, Investigate Europe | Taz, 18 November 2017

Viele Rumäninnen müssen im Ausland arbeiten, um über die Runden zu kommen. Darunter haben sie enorm zu leiden – und noch mehr ihre Kinder.

Photo: Vasilica pflückt seit Jahren im Südwesten Spaniens Erdbeeren, DPA

LITENI taz | Die Fahrt in das Dorf, dem die Mütter abhanden gekommen sind, ist kurvenreich. Von der Stadt Lasi aus, ganz im Nordosten Rumäniens gelegen, geht es vorbei an Sonnenblumenfeldern, auf denen Bauern mit Traktoren arbeiten. Auf einer Brache außerhalb des Dorfes steht ein tief gebräunter Schäfer mit seinem Hirtenstab und ruft nach seiner Herde. Die Schafe laufen an einem Teich vorbei, der gerade neu mit Karpfen bestückt wurde und nun zum Angeln freigegeben ist.

Wir fahren über eine enge Brücke in das Dorf, auf staubigen Straßen entlang der Häuser, alte und neue. Viele von ihnen wurden nicht fertig gebaut. Die Dächer sind ungedeckt, Stapel an Steinen neben den Häusern, Baugerät. Wir folgen der Straße bis zum Dorfkern, begleitet werden wir von George Moga, dem Direktor der Schule am Ort. Er zeigt auf die einzelnen Häuser: „Das da wurde mit Geld aus Griechenland gebaut“, sagt er, „und das mit Einkünften aus Italien.“

Moga bringt uns zu einem kleinen Gehöft, in dem Schweine und Hühner gezüchtet werden. Er stellt uns die Besitzer vor, eine Familie, deren Vorstand Costel Butnaru ist, der Vater. „Kommen Sie mal zur Erdbeer-Saison hier ins Dorf, sie werden nicht den Schatten einer Frau finden“, sagt er. Costels Frau Vasilica, 44, ist schon seit acht Jahren unterwegs, um zu arbeiten. Von Rumänien aus fährt sie nach Almonte in Südwestspanien, wo sie sich mit fünf anderen Frauen ein Zimmer teilt. Von März bis in den Hochsommer pflücken sie Erdbeeren und im September bereiten sie die Pflanzen für die kommende Saison vor.

„Mich haben sie hier gelassen, damit ich mich um die Kinder kümmere“, sagt Costel Butnaru. „Ich habe ihnen das Schreiben beigebracht. Ich habe mein Bestes getan, um für sie da zu sein, damit sie alles haben, was sie brauchen.“ Vasilica war Hausfrau und Costel hat „gutes Geld“ verdient als Bauarbeiter in Bukarest. Doch seit der Finanzkrise im Jahr 2008 konnte er keine feste Anstellung mehr finden.

Mindestlohn plus Essensgutscheine

Manchmal gibt es Arbeit in den nahe gelegenen Weinbergen. Mehr als 35 Kilometer entfernt steht eine Fabrik für Autopolster, in Letcani, aber dort wird nur der Mindestlohn gezahlt, plus Essensgutscheine. Costel würde dorthin pendeln müssen, auch nachts und bei jedem Wetter – es kann hier minus 20 Grad kalt werden. „Mag sein, dass es in der Fremde hart ist, aber zurückgelassen werden ist schlimmer“, sagt Costel.

Rumänien ist Spitzenreiter: In keinem anderen Land sind so viele Bürgerinnen und Bürger im europäischen Ausland. Viele von ihnen kommen aus ländlichen Gegenden wie Liteni. Die Dorfbewohner sind ins Ausland gegangen, um auf Baustellen, bei der Obsternte, als Reinigungskräfte oder in der Pflege zu arbeiten – in Italien, Spanien, Deutschland und Zypern.

Doch seitdem der Bauboom in Südeuropa durch die Finanzkrise kollabierte, ist der Bedarf an Arbeitskräften gewachsen, deren Anforderungsprofil eher mit Frauen assoziiert wird – was in Rumänien ein völlig neues Phänomen hervorgerufen hat: Dörfer mit wenigen – oder gar keinen – Frauen im arbeitsfähigen Alter und einer großen Anzahl von Kindern, die ohne Mutter aufwachsen.

Die 13 Jahre alte Gabi Butnaru hat gerade die sechste Klasse beendet. „Mama hat mir immer beim Lesenlernen geholfen“, sagt sie. Doch ihre Mutter ist zum Arbeiten im Ausland, seitdem ihre Tochter im Kindergarten ist. In diesem Jahr ist sie am 9. März nach Lucena in Spanien gereist, um dort Erdbeeren und Himbeeren zu pflücken.

Gabis Leben hat sich verändert. Wenn ihr Vater draußen war auf dem Feld, musste sie lernen Kartoffeln zu braten, Suppe zu kochen, sauber zu machen, die Schweine, Hühner und Kühe zu füttern. Dann erst konnte sie ihre Hausaufgaben machen. „Es war hart“, sagt Gabi, und ihre Augen füllen sich mit Tränen. „Danach noch die Kraft zu finden, um zu lernen und alles richtig zu machen.“

Allein unter Fremden

Ihr Mutter Mihaela, 33, ist nun zurück in Rumänien. Es war hart auch für sie, weg von zu Hause zu sein, allein unter Fremden, und für einen Chef zu arbeiten, dessen Anforderungen hoch waren. Und dessen Sprache sie nicht sprach.

Auf der Farm teilte sie sich ein Zimmer mit vier anderen Frauen. Eine Monatsmiete für eine Unterkunft in der nahe gelegenen spanischen Stadt hätte 250 Euro im Monat gekostet – doch die Frauen brauchten das Geld für zu Hause. Mihaela hat bis zur Erschöpfung gearbeitet. „Wir hatten keinen freien Sonntag, wir haben sogar an Ostern gearbeitet“, sagt sie.

Erdbeeren pflücken ist eine anstrengende, auch schmerzhafte Arbeit. Die Pflückerinnen müssen sich sieben Tage die Woche bücken, und das bis zu acht Stunden am Tag, plus Überstunden. Und sie werden zur Eile angetrieben, kaum Pausen. Eine Folge: heftige Rückenschmerzen.

Ihr Mann Petre liest aus der Liste der Medikamente vor, die seine Frau mit nach Spanien nimmt: Das Schmerzmittel Ketonal für die Rückenschmerzen, Paracetamol für Zahnschmerzen, Baldrian gegen den Stress und Asprin, um die Durchblutung zu verbessern. „Wir haben keine Wahl, wir brauchen das Geld“, sagt Mihaela.

Ihr Ehemann hat sich vor zwölf Jahren das linke Bein gebrochen, nun ist es steif. Seitdem kann er nur noch Hilfsarbeiten machen. Mal beschlägt er Pferdehufe, mal übernimmt er Schweißarbeiten oder hilft beim Pflügen. „Er verdient genug, um Brot und eine Flasche Speiseöl zu kaufen“, sagt Mihaela. „Aber mit diesen Einkünften, dem bisschen Kindergeld und Unterstützung von der kommunalen Verwaltung kann man keine großen Sprünge machen.“

Manches Mal im Minus

Schon manches Mal ist die Familie im Minus gelandet, dass sie dann zurückzahlen musste. Was stets bedeutet, dass sie das Land für längere Zeit verlassen muss, um zu arbeiten, während ihr versehrter Mann zu Hause bleibt, um sich um die Kinder zu kümmern.

„Ein Kind leidet darunter“, sagt sie. „Sie macht die ganze Hausarbeit und ist doch noch ein Kind. Sie sollte nicht so ausgebeutet werden, sie ist noch so jung. Sie musste schon so vieles aushalten, schon in so zartem Alter.“ Mihaelas Stimme wird leiser, Tränen schimmern: „Ich kann es nicht ertragen, von den Kindern getrennt zu sein.“

Gabi nickt mit dem Kopf. Oft hat sie ihre Mutter am Telefon angefleht, doch zurückzukommen. Wird sie ihre Mutter wieder gehen lassen? „Nein“, sagt Gabi und wischt ihr Gesicht trocken. „Alles, was ich will, ist, dass wir vereint zu Hause sind, eine glückliche Familie.“

Die Mutter der 13-jährigen Lavinia ist in diesem Jahr zum ersten Mal nach Spanien gefahren, um Obst zu ernten. Lavinia musste einige der Pflichten ihrer Mutter übernehmen. Das war belastend, denn Lavinia ist gerne vorbereitet, wenn sie in die Schule geht, die von 8 Uhr morgens bis 14 Uhr geht. „Ich muss dann saubermachen, kochen, Hausaufgaben machen, schlafen.“

Sie ist in einer Klasse, in der 13 von 28 MitschülerInnen Eltern haben, die im Ausland arbeiten. In vielen Fällen hat das die Ehen zerstört, die Eltern haben sich scheiden lassen.

Verängstigte Kinder

„Die Kinder sind nicht mehr, wie sie waren“, sagt Lavinia. „Sie sind distanzierter, reservierter, weniger kindlich. Bei einigen werden die Zensuren schlechter. Alles, woran sie denken können, ist die Scheidung ihrer Eltern.“ Hunderttausende Kinder in Rumänien wachsen mit Eltern auf, die im Ausland arbeiten. Geschätzt handelt es sich um zehn Prozent aller im Lande lebenden Kinder.

An der Grund- und Mittelschule in Liteni haben 115 von 350 SchülerInnen mindestens ein Elternteil, das im Ausland arbeitet. Der Schuldirektor, George Moga, sagt, dass die ökonomisch bedingte Migration die zurückbleibenden Kinder verängstigt. „Wir haben hier Fälle von Kinder-Burn-out“, sagt er.

„Die Eltern, die im Ausland arbeiten, sagen den Kindern, dass sie das für sie tun. Im Gegenzug ist es dann die Pflicht der Kinder, hart zu lernen. Und Kinder, die gezwungen sind, ohne die Unterstützung ihrer Eltern zurechtzukommen, stürzen sich dann in Lernerei und Hausarbeit, bis sie nicht mehr in der Lage sind zu lächeln.“

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Crina Boroș(Text) und Johnny Green (Fotos) arbeiten für das Recherche-Netzwerk „Investigate Europe“. Übersetzung aus dem Englischen: Martin Reichert

DAS RECHERCHEPROJEKT

Investigate Europe ist ein paneuropäisches Pilotprojekt: ein Team mit neun Journalisten aus acht Ländern, das europaweit relevante Themen recherchiert, gemeinsam Thesen erarbeitet und alle Ergebnisse teilt. Unterstützt wird das Projekt von der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, der norwegischen Fritt Ord Foundation, der Stiftung Hübner und Kennedy, der Rudolf Augstein Stiftung und der Open Society Initiative for Europe.

Das Team arbeitet mit den NGOs Journalismfund und N-Ost zusammen. Die Recherchen zum "Europäischen Prekariat" werden in ganz Europa veröffentlicht. Zu den Medienpartnern gehören neben der taz unter anderem Newsweek Polska, Público, Aftenbladet, Tagesspiegel, Corriere della Sera und De Standaard. Mehr zum Projekt unter: investigate-europe.eu

ORIGINAL PUBLICATION: TAZ, GERMANY - http://www.taz.de/!5460076/

#Arbeitsmigration #Rumänien #INVESTIGATE EUROPE #crina boros #TAZ #gig economy #kinder

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crinaboros · 6 years

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How Romania sold out its workers to foreign investors for IMF and EU cash

by CRINA BOROŞ, Investigate Europe | The Black Sea, 24 October 2017

Welcome to the minimum wage society

Photo: The People’s House in Bucharest houses Romania’s Parliament, by JOHNNY GREEN, July 2017, Bucharest, Romania

Romania’s leaders sold off their citizens’ rights and kept their wages at rock-bottom to satisfy foreign investor lobbyists and billion-Euro lenders from the EU and IMF, argue labour experts and unions

Romania was used as a ‘guinea pig’ by foreign investors with the support of lenders, as a test case in the EU to weaken workers’ rights to bargain for higher salaries, details academic research

Romania is a country viewed as an economic miracle in the European Union.

Its unemployment hovers around five per cent, its growth rate is an EU best of over five per cent, and its GDP grows five per cent each year.

The statistics are clear: the country is booming.

But a closer look inside Romania reveals a shocking reality - crippling poverty, widespread labour exploitation, low purchasing power and a mass emigration by working-age citizens from all its regions.

How has the country become an economist’s dream and a worker’s nightmare?

A key reason is that Romania is a country of a cheap and flexible labour force, where most workers are defenceless in the face of their employers, and the minimum wage is a reference salary for millions.

With one in three Romanians trapped in a contract on the lowest possible salary, this country contains a dumping ground of cheap and desperate labour within the EU.

How did this happen?

Forced to liberalise its labour market by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Commission (EC), and following intense lobbying from foreign investors, Romanian officials demolished the country’s power to bargain with employers for decent wages, and pushed people from stable jobs into precarious circumstances.

Labour researchers believe over 40 per cent of workers in Romania are on the minimum wage, if unofficial jobs are factored into the figures. Meanwhile, the latest Government data shows that around 30 per cent of total contracts pay the national minimum wage or under. This is still a massive number, and contrasts with nine per cent in Germany.

“In other countries, the minimum wage is the ceiling below which you shouldn’t pay. In Romania, it is an orientation mark!” says Stephan Meuser, head of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Romania, a political foundation close to Germany’s Social Democratic Party.

So what is stopping the Government from securing a better than minimum wage from west European big business, who are shifting production and services eastward?

Its own laws.

Photo: Three-quarters of Romania retail workers - over 0.5 million people - have no access to union protection, argue syndicate leaders, by JOHNNY GREEN, July 2017, Bucharest, Romania

Operation: Target Labour Rights

The attack on workers’ rights kicked off in 2008. As the global financial crash hit Europe, Romania was in a cash-flow crisis.

Desperate for money, it agreed to a 20-billion Euro bailout package in March 2009. The lenders were the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Commission, the World Bank (WB), and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The IMF put up the largest sum: 13 billion Euro.

But this was not charity. The cash came with conditions. The lenders wanted Romania to deregulate its labour market. The secretary general of the union Cartel Alfa, Petru Dandea, sat in the negotiations. In the meetings, he says that the EC and the IMF were keen to push for a flexible labour market, although the Commission did not specify how Romanian officials should loosen its labour laws.

But an IMF technical memorandum from 2010 shows their experts were involved in helping draft the country’s Social Dialogue policy - the process of negotiation between workers, unions, employers and Government - and review the existing Labour Code, to replace Romania’s old regulations.

“Before end-December (after consultation with social partners and with the IMF, the World Bank and the European Commission), we will send a revised social dialog code and an improved labor code to parliament,” reads a document written by then-Finance Minister Gheorghe Ialomiţianu.

Avoiding any public debate, Romania's leaders launched draconian anti-labour policies. These were aimed at attacking workers' rights and reducing its unionised workforce, which dropped from approximately 90 per cent in 1991 to 20 per cent of workers today, according to Conect Association, an advocacy group.

In 2011, the Democratic Liberal-led Government of Prime Minister Emil Boc axed Romania’s yearly bargained National Contract from the old Labour Code. This contract contained a salary grid that forced businesses to factor in a person’s education level, professional skills and experience when calculating their pay.

With this protection removed, employers only had to comply with one law: paying the minimum wage.

Leaders of Cartel Alfa union, the National Union Block (BNS), the Retail Unions Federation and Conect Association agree this was a blow to salaries, and opened the door to a country where around a third of contracted staff are on the lowest wage possible.

Behind this move were large multinationals. According to Petru Dandea and other union leaders, major corporate lobbying groups in Romania, the Foreign Investors Council (FIC) and the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) had been relentlessly lobbying for a more flexible labour market since 2002 - well before the crash.

But AmCham is proud to see the law move in a direction more favourable to its members. Today the group’s spokesperson Andreea Roma believes that the new code “has had a positive impact on Romania’s economic growth”.

Meanwhile the Foreign Investors Council (FIC) also admits that it was instrumental in proposing the new changes. It took part in “over 20 meetings with officials and other organisations” to discuss the 2011 Labour Code and policy on Social Dialogue, according to spokesman Radu Burnete.

The group submitted their labour-related proposals for the Government’s consideration in 2010. Among their requests, they asked officials to facilitate short-term hire, particularly temporary and zero-hour contracts.

This would allow companies to avoid full or part-time employment commitment and commission work for brief periods.

In other words, companies would not need contracts with their staff, and they could hire workers by text message the day before with the number of work hours available - this could be eight, or it could be zero.

Photo: Workers’ rights to bargain for wage rises “smashed” by new law, Petru Dandea, union leader, by JOHNNY GREEN, July 2017, Bucharest, Romania

European Commission: interference without the right?

The collective bargaining system was “smashed” due to the new law, complains Petru Dandea. Since 2011, four-fifths of all wage negotiations held at company level have been concluded without legitimate workers' representatives, he argues.

Now close to a third of the workforce receive the minimum wage - 1,846,498, if registered freelancers are included. “We are paid as if we were a country of unqualified workers,” complains the trade unionist.

The European Commission encouraged this practice. In 2012, a new government in Bucharest announced that it would undo the reforms and make country-wide collective agreements possible again. Officials for Olli Rehn - then EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs - together with the IMF, attacked the proposal.

“We strongly urge the authorities to ensure that national wage agreements do not contain elements related to wages and/or reverse the progress achieved in the labour code in 2011,” they wrote to the government. The American Chamber of Commerce issued a similar letter of protest. The ‘troika’ lenders also called on officials not to introduce annual collective bargaining. The government gave up the plan.

With this intervention, Rehn and his officials staked a claim to a right to which they were not entitled. Article 153 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, which describes the tasks of the Union regarding social policy and work standards, states that the EU and its agencies have no competence to regulate wages. In the letter above, Rehn’s officials only ‘strongly urge’ - the text of which means ‘we are not telling you to do this’, the subtext of which most would understand to mean ‘we are telling you to do this’.

In practise, the Commission was more intrusive, argue witnesses. The leader of Romania’s National Union Bloc (Blocul National Sindical - BNS) Dumitru Costin, who was also part of many negotiations with Romania’s ‘troika’ lenders, confirmed that the European Commission discussed setting wages.

“Of course wage-setting was discussed! The only wage-setting topic the Commission is interested in is the mechanism behind establishing the national minimum wage,” says Costin.

Costin and Dandea say that during Romania’s meetings with the ‘Troika’ lenders, the Commission did not oppose the business lobbyists’ suggestions on how laws on workers’ rights should change. “They were accomplices,” argues Costin.

We approached Rehn, who is today a member of the board of the Finnish Central Bank, but he declined to be interviewed on these meddling allegations with the labour reforms of other countries, and whether the EU was acting outside of its jurisdiction.

Right to Fight Back Attacked

Want to form a union in Romania?

It should be easy.

The Romanian Constitution says “Citizens may freely associate into political parties, trade unions, employers' associations, and other forms of association”.

And this has international confirmation.

The European Convention of Human Rights gives workers “the right to form trade unions for the protection of members' interests”.

But these two legal obstacles did not get in the way of Romania’s labour reform.

Before 2011, a minimum of 15 people from the same profession, working for different employers within the same industry could form a union.

The new Social Dialogue Act from 2011 said those 15 now needed to work for the same company, and they cannot include freelancers.

But even if workers can form a union, it could be powerless. If a union wants the recognition to bargain for higher wages within a firm, it must have a membership of 50 per cent plus one of all employees in that company - and big retailers in Romania employ upwards of 15,000. This is a vast number for a union to enlist.

“Every year, the bargaining power of workers is diminishing and you get into a situation where roughly half of the persons get or end up with the minimum wage,” says Stephan Meuser.

Romanian unions accuse the then-Boc Government of passing policy that barred their access to the negotiating table, leaving employees in precarious situations.

“I call it the Anti-Social Dialogue Act,” says Retail Union Federation president Vasile Gogescu. “It was passed to almost dissolve the collective bargaining contract.”

No protection for vast majority of shop-workers

The numbers quoted by unions paint a grim picture of the impact of 2011’s Social Dialog Act.

This has hit the boom sectors of shops and warehouses.

There are at least 800,000 employees in Romania’s retail sector, which has been key in the last three years to fuelling the country’s consumer-led growth.

Of these, over 600,000 work for companies with fewer than 15 members of staff, according to Gogescu.

This means three-quarters of some of Romania’s most vulnerable workers cannot have access to union protection.

Workers also have little control over their job requirements. “Countless tasks and responsibilities are piling up,” says Gogescu, “and contracts [stipulating the requirements of the job] end with the sentence ‘And any other assignment designated by the line manager’. This means that you can never refuse a job.”

According to a report from Conect Association, in 2015, there were 468,374 enterprises with fewer than 15 employees, comprising 1.29 million employees. This reveals a huge number deprived of protection from a collectively-bargained contract.

The association’s president Rodica Novac says the Social Dialogue policy was passed without any assessment of its public impact, or consideration of the realities of Romania’s labour market.

“There are companies who don’t favour the unionisation of their workers,” argues Novac. “Japanese companies, for instance, are straightforward about it. Also, Auchan - a France-headquartered multinational supermarket chain - and the Schwartz group [German owner of retail brands Kaufland and Lidl] are anti-union employers.”

Cartel Alfa’s Secretary General said unions met ten times with the lenders in the ‘Troika’ loan implementation years and “explained to them what effects the legislation had: the [collective bargaining] contracts started to disappear, the [number of] minimum wages… was increasing rapidly.“

This is also against international labour laws. Needing 15 persons to form a union from the same company violates both EU laws and International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions on the freedom of association. This law article is contested by unions and the case is being considered by Romania’s Constitutional Court. “We hope that this provision will be killed,” adds Stephan Meuser, from Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.

Photo: Hope that anti-union law will be seen to break constitution, Stephan Meuser, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, by JOHNNY GREEN, July 2017, Bucharest, Romania

Romania: a “Guinea Pig” to reduce workers’ rights

But could this method of deregulation spread beyond Romania? Corporate lobbyists were using the 2008 financial crisis to propose changes to the country’s labour laws in a move to create a ‘test case’ for a nation of hollowed-out workers’ rights in the EU, argues new research.

"Representatives of both employers’ associations and unions consider that Romania was used as a ‘guinea pig’ by foreign investors with the support of the so-called Troika (IMF, EC, World Bank), to decentralize collective bargaining radically,” according to a 2016 European Journal of Industrial Relations study by Aurora Trif, a social scientist from Dublin University.

Trif quoted a union official anonymously in the document: “All the labour market reforms [in Romania] were initiated and adopted at the recommendation of two players; one is the American Chamber of Commerce and the other one is the Foreign Investors’ Council. The Romanian model has been exported to other central and east European countries and foreign investors wish to extend it in western European countries.”

The result of the 2011 laws favouring business to the detriment of Romania’s workforce has been “catastrophic” for society says Vasile Gogescu.

“Take two employees both earning the national minimum wage - if they start a family, and say they have a child, they cannot pay their bills by working, or even afford everyday basic goods,” he adds. “We’re slowly becoming the working poor.”

Additional reporting: Harald Schumann, Investigate Europe and Michael Bird

Investigate Europe is supported by Germany’s Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Rudolf-Augstein-Stiftung and Stiftung Hübner&Kennedy, the Norwegian foundation Fritt Ord and the Open Society Initiative for Europe.

ORIGINAL PUBLICATION: THE BLACK SEA | Editor: Michael Bird - https://m.theblacksea.eu/stories/article/en/romania-worker-sell-out Photography: Johnny Green

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crinaboros · 6 years

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De stille tårenes land

by CRINA BOROŞ, Investigate Europe | Aftenbladet, 28 September 2017

JOBBENE VÅRE: Millioner av rumenere må utenlands for å finne arbeid å leve av. Prisen er slit, smertestillende og stress. Samt barnas tårer.

- I jordbærsesongen ser du ikke snurten av en kvinne i denne landsbyen! Det sier Costel Butnaru. Han er en av mange ektemenn i landsbyen Liteni i nordøst-Romania med kone som jobber utenlands for å kunne betale regninger hjemme. Mor som jobber i Spania. Mor og far som jobber i Italia. Mor som jobber i Italia, far som er død. Far som jobber i Tyskland. Mor som jobber i Tyskland, far som jobber på Kypros. På skolen i Liteni har 115 av de 350 elevene minst én forelder som har arbeid i utlandet.

Photo: Denisa er elev ved skolen i Liteni, der rektor George Moga har ansvar for 350 barn. 115 av dem har minst én av foreldrene i utlandet. By Johnny Green, July 2017, Liteni village, Iaşi, Romania

De speiler store nasjonale tall: Over 95.000 barn har foreldre som tjener til livets opphold i andre land. Trenden peker oppover.

Tallene er altfor lave, fastslår Alex Gulei, leder i den frivillige organisasjonen Alternative Sociale. En studie de gjorde med Unicef i 2008, fant 350.000 barn med foreldre som var økonomiske migranter – mens det offisielle tallet var 85.000. Forskjellen var at de offisielle tallene bare viser barn som har fått formell verge mens foreldrene er borte. Den andre rapporten bygde på tall hentet inn på skoler.

Utbrente barn

Arbeidsutvandringen setter dype spor i mange barn, ifølge George Moga, rektor ved skolen i Liteni.

- Vi har hatt tilfeller med utbrente barn, sier han.

Photo: Halvparten av sjetteklassingene som gikk ut av skolen i Liteni i sommer, hadde minst én av foreldrene i utlandet. By Crina Boroş, July 2017, Iaşi, Romania

Halvparten av sjetteklassingene som gikk ut av skolen i Liteni i sommer, hadde minst én av foreldrene i utlandet. CRINA BOROS

- Foreldrene sier til barna at de gjør dette for deres skyld. Imens er ungenes plikt å gjøre det så godt de kan på skolen. Barn som må takle hverdagen helt uten hjelp eller oppfølging fra foreldre, drukner seg i lekser og andre krav. Vi ser deprimerte unger som ikke klare å smile, sier Moga. Han anslår at et av ti barn som har foreldre som jobber utenlands, dropper ut av skolen.

- Vi fordømmer ikke foreldre som drar ut for å forsørge familien. Men de må forberede barna sine og holde kontakten med dem, sier Niculina Karacsony. Hun leder barnevernet i Iasi.

Barnevernslederen sier hun ser stadig flere barn med foreldre i utlandet som er seksuelt misbrukt, oftest av familiemedlemmer. Dette, mener Karacsony, er en følge av at mange mødre har reist.

Bestemor oppdrar de små

På trammen til Costel Butnaru forteller en storfamilie om sine migrasjonserfaringer.

Photo: Rodica Grecu og Elena Asaftie kjenner den vonde siden av arbeidsvandringen. Rodica dro fra tre små sønner for sesongarbeid i spansk landbruk, Elena sier hun snart ikke orker å vinke farvel til sønner og døtre flere ganger mens barna deres står gråtende igjen. By Johnny Green, July 2017, Liteni village, Iaşi, Romania

- Jeg har to foreldreløse her. Ingen mor, ingen far, sier en bestemor. Hun er i ferd med å bli verge for barnebarnet Bogdan på tre og et halvt og hans like unge fetter, og vil være anonym.

Bogdans foreldre har skilt seg. Faren er kokk i Tyskland. Moren er også «et sted i utlandet», sier bestemor. Som verge får hun en viss offentlig støtte. På toppen av penger som guttenes foreldre sender hjem, skal hun klare å ta seg av de to små med dette.

Photo: Barn leker ved en innsjø i landsbyen Liteni i Romania, der 115 av skolens 350 elever har minst én av foreldrene i utlandet. By JOHNNY GREEN, July 2017, Liteni village, Iaşi, Romania

13 år og savner mor

Gabi Butnaru har gått ut sjette klasse. Hun har greid seg uten moren Mihaela i et halvt år. Mihaela kom nettopp hjem fra en gård i Lucena i Spania. Der har hun plukket jordbær og bringebær. Hun forlot datteren dagen etter morsdagen. - Mamma pleide å hjelpe meg med leksene, sier Gabi.

Uten moren var livet helt annerledes. Når faren var ute og jobbet, måtte Gabi lage mat, gjøre reint og mate dyra før hun kunne gjøre lekser. - Det var vanskelig, sier 13-åringen lavt mens øynene fylles av tårer. - Det var vanskelig å klare å gjøre alt, å gjøre det skikkelig.

Tårene siler. Det gjør de også på Mihaela, som sitter ved siden av henne.

Gabi gråt mye på telefonen også, og tagg moren om å komme hjem igjen.

Vil hun la Mihaela reise en gang til? - Nei! smeller det fra 13-åringen, som tørker tårene. - Jeg vil bare at vi skal være sammen, hele familien, hjemme.

Faren til Gabi heter Petre. Han brakk foten da hun var baby og kan ikke bøye den. Petre tar småjobber; han pløyer, sveiser og reparerer hestesko. - Han tjener nok til å kjøpe brød og en flaske olje, sier Mihaela. Hun må til pers for å få det til å gå rundt. Og siden det knapt fins arbeid lokalt som er til å leve av, er løsningen å dra utenlands. På gården i Spania delte hun rom med fire andre kvinner mellom skiftene. Men hun hadde ikke mye tid på brakka. - Jeg var utkjørt. Vi ante ikke hvilken ukedag det var, for vi hadde ikke søndagsfri, sier hun.

Photo: Lavinia Tihulca er 13 år og vet hvordan det er når mor jobber i et annet land. By JOHNNY GREEN, July 2017, Liteni village, Iaşi, Romania

Petre viser fram listen over piller kona hadde med seg: Ketonal, et sterkt smertestillende, mot ryggvondt. Valerian mot uro. Aspirin for blodomløpet. Paracet mot tannverk.

Både familien og hun selv har det vondt når hun er borte. Men Mihaela lar ikke følelsene ta overhånd. - Vi har ikke noe valg. Vi trenger pengene, sier hun.

Fri flyt – ond sirkel?

Fri flyt av kapital, varer, tjenester og mennesker er selve mantraet i EUs indre marked. Det skal tjene alle, i hvert fall på sikt.

For enkeltmennesker – og for EU-prosjektet – har arbeidsvandring fra Sentral- og Øst-Europa gitt positive utslag, fastslo Det internasjonale valutafondet IMF i en «discussion note» i fjor. Dessuten har mottakerlandene i vest og nord trolig tjent på at faglærte og høyt utdannede øst-europeere har tilbudt kompetansen sin hos dem, mener økonomene. 3,4 millioner rumenere har reist fra Romania, der nesten halvparten av befolkningen lever på landsbygda. Hver sjette som utvandret, hadde høy utdanning, ifølge Verdensbanken. Tyskland, som har sterkt behov for leger, har rekruttert flest utenlandske medisinere fra Romania, viser tall fra den tyske legeforeningen.

Photo: I landsbyen Liteni i Romania tjener mange pengene sine på å jobbe utenlands. De hever sin materielle velstand flere hakk. Noen får råd til å bygge hus. Kostnadene ved arbeidsvandringen er på andre plan. By JOHNNY GREEN, Liteni village, Iaşi, Romania

De fleste rumenere som har reist, er imidlertid arbeidsfolk som har bidratt til økonomisk vekst i landene der de har betalt skatt. Masseutvandring som dette kan derimot ha hemmet veksten i øst-europeiske land og bremset utjevningen av de enorme inntektsforskjellene mellom land i Europa, mener IMF-økonomene. «Utvandring ser ut til å ha redusert konkurransekraft og blåst opp størrelsen på det offentlige systemet ved at sosialutgiftene har fått en større andel av økonomien», skriver valutafondet, som advarer: Hvis det ikke blir satt inn tiltak for å motvirke dette, risikerer Europa at utvandring og altfor langsom utjevning blir en ond sirkel.

Photo: En familie på vei for å fiske i Litani, en rumensk landsby der svært mange av barna lever med savnet av mor eller far – eller begge. De jobber i utlandet. JOHNNY GREEN, Liteni village, Iaşi, Romania

I Liteni som mange andre steder på den rumenske landsbygda, er familien fortsatt sikkerhetsnettet – helt uunnværlig. Men tilgangen til mye bedre betalt arbeid i andre land har snudd opp ned på tradisjoner. I mange familier er det nå kvinnene som drar utenlands og blir hovedforsørgere, mens fedre – eller bestemødre - blir hjemme med barna. Som 62 år gamle Elena, mor til fem og bestemor til mange flere. Også hun synes arbeidsvandringen har en uholdbar side.

- Jeg er syk av å vinke farvel til ungene mine der de står med bagasjen sin med egne barn som stirrer gråtende på dem. Jeg vet ikke om jeg orker det mer.

ORIGINAL PUBLICATION: https://www.aftenbladet.no/okonomi/i/e9QM4/-De-stille-tarenes-land

Photography: Johnny Green

#ROMANIA #JOHNNY GREEN #CRINA BOROS #IASI #LITENI #immigration #investigate europe #aftenbladet #gig economy #konsertøkonomi #migrasjon

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crinaboros · 6 years

Text

Investigation: How a US firm pushed for EU €2.1trn pension fund

By Crina Boros, Euobserver | Investigate Europe (investigation, open, 21 June 2018)

youtube

The European Commission is about to create a private pension fund, worth €2.1trillion - justifying their decision by pointing to the increasingly large and more elderly European Union population.

This arrangement, which was absent from the European Commission president's list of official top 10 priorities in 2015, will impact on some 240 million savers. The PEPP (Pan-European Personal Pension Product) will be a private, portable, pension product across EU member states.It follows an idea launched by the US financial services corporate giant BlackRock, the world's largest asset fund manager that built some two-thirds of its $6trn empire on pensions. Headed by Larry Fink, BlackRock back in 2015 proposed the creation of a "cross-border personal pension fund". BlackRock wrote, in a paper, that the EU should be "reviewing demand for, feasibility and key features of a cross-border personal pension vehicle as a means of empowering consumers to save more effectively for their retirement needs." At that time, there was nothing similar in European law. Just over a year later, the commission started working on it.

(Photo: There are some 240 million potential savers for the fund in the EU. Author: Drriss & Marrionn)

The commission estimated that the EU's internal pension funds market could triple in value by 2030: from €700bn today, to €2.1 trillion.

These numbers transformed the PEPP into one of the commission's most ambitious projects.

Now the commission's proposal is on the table, pending approval from the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, representing member states.

But one member of the parliament's committee on economic and monetary affairs, Martin Schirdewan of the European United Left (GUE), is highly critical of PEPP.

"At the heart of this proposal are not concerns about pensioners' incomes, but only the possibility of opening up new opportunities for business for the financial industry", he said.

Result of lobbying? There is no shortage of evidence that this was the top priority of BlackRock's lobby agenda in Brussels.

BlackRock president Robert Kapito talked about capitalising on European retirees' money in 2015.

His company arranged more meetings with commission members than any of its competitors.

Since a mandatory register of meetings was put in place in 2014, BlackRock is recorded as meeting commission officials more than 30 times.

Larry Fink, BlackRock's CEO, again raised their European private pension fund idea in January 2017.

Speaking at a ceremony at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Fink seized the occasion to criticise an "over-reliance on state pensions" and used the demographic argument to justify the need for a private pension scheme.

He was not shy to say that people are living longer lives means that they can "work many more years to pay for their reforms", as he claimed that "strengthening the capital market and pension systems will be vital to Europe's economic future."

Months later, the commission's vice-president for the euro and social dialogue, Latvia's Valdis Dombrovskis, evoked the same anxieties when introducing PEPP at a European Pensions Conference, echoing Fink's Frankfurt comments.

"Europe is facing an unprecedented demographic challenge. Over the next 50 years the proportion of the working-age population is expected to double ... The so-called pension gap will increase the pressure on public finances," he said.

Additionally, Fink's conclusion in Frankfurt was that "retirement systems around the world have failed to prepare workers for the future". Dombrovskis' June speech argued the same point: state funding of pension schemes is something to review in the future.

"The pan-European Personal Pension Product is an important milestone towards completing the Capital Markets Union", Dombrovskis said in his June 2017 speech.

"Today we are proposing to lay the foundations for a single European private pensions market. We are presenting a new voluntary scheme to save for retirement, a Pan-European Personal Pensions Product, or PEPP," he announced.

Dombrovskis argument is in line with the EU's general policies. The European Semester and EU's country-specific recommendations tend to invite member states to make "structural reforms" in their pension schemes.

Its 2017 recommendations also targeted countries like Germany, Poland and Italy.

BlackRock discussed the PEPP further with the responsible directorate-general, for financial stability, financial services and capital markets union (FISMA) at least once, in October 2017. They also met with general director Olivier Guersent and Jan Ceyssens from the European Commission.

The commission told Investigate Europe that "FISMA had similar meetings with dozens of other PEPP stakeholders, which is normal, as we have tried to hear a wide range of stakeholders when drafting legislation. We also opened a public consultation to prepare the proposal, as usual, in which BlackRock was one of many entities to respond."

This idea - advocated by Blackrock since 2015 - had made it to the stage of a public consultation at EU level in the space of less than four years.

The suspicion that BlackRock's lobby has a special weight in Brussels was put to Guillaume Prache, director of Better Finance, the European Federation of Investors and Users of Financial Services.

"It appears that in 2017 BlackRock met several times with European commissioners while we did not have a single meeting with the commissioner responsible for financial services," Prache explained.

Resaver

This criticism from BlackRock's European rival comes after the American giant was also chosen to manage the wealth of Europe's first cross-border private fund, an NGO called Resaver.

Resaver is different from PEPP because it targets only professionals like university researchers and scientists. It is based on contributions from employers (universities, laboratories, companies).

The PEPP will be a kind of retirement savings plan (PRP), based on individual savings that, for the first time, will have pan-European rules, tax benefits and common treatment.

Assigning BlackRock to manage Resaver's funds disappointed European fund managers. Resaver is the work of Portuguese Research and Innovation commissioner Carlos Moedas and is funded at €4m by taxpayers via Horizon2020, the biggest EU research and innovation programme.

"It is somewhat surprising that the first public experience with a pan-European pension scheme has been granted to a US company when there are large financial asset managers in Europe," says Prache. "It is a sign of the success and efficiency of its lobby".

A European Commission product, Resaver includes pensions from the Budapest Central University, the Elettra Synchrotron of Trieste, the Italian Institute of Technology, the Fondazione Edmund Mach, the Vienna Technical University and the Association of Universities of the Netherlands, among others.

When Blackrock signed the contract with Resaver in Budapest, its director Tony Stenning tagged the new European pension scheme as a "one-time evolution", adding that "it will not be the last step" for Europe's pension market growth.

BlackRock's British hirings

This last sentence was, in some ways, premonitory.

Stenning was speaking in October 2015, many months before the plan for the creation of PEPP was known. But at that time BlackRock had other means of knowing in detail the evolution of related European decisions.

In 2015, months before gaining managerial powers over Resaver, BlackRock had hired the British civil servant, Rupert Harrison, as its new "head of macro-strategy", after convincing him to leave his job as chief of staff serving under the UK's chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne.

Harrison had been the chief architect of the 'pension revolution', a grand project designed by David Cameron's Conservative-led coalition government.

This "revolution" - a termed also used by Osborne – open the doors to a market to which BlackRock, or, for that matter, other pension market managers, had not had access before.

After he stopped being chancellor in 2016, Osborne accepted a payment of £34,109.14 from BlackRock Inc, for a speech he gave in November 2016, covering a declared hour of work, plus travel and accommodation.

Osborne then joined BlackRock later, in 2017 after PEPP was launched. By then, he had participated in decisions affecting BlackRock's industry as the UK's finance minister.

Osborne took this part-time corporate job - that pays an annual salary of £650,000 for four days a month - after new prime minister Theresa May preferred that someone else ran the Treasury. Osborne now also edits the London Evening Standard, in addition to several other roles.

Investigate Europe asked BlackRock why they had hired both Harrison and Osborne. They referred to a statement issued to the Financial Times at the time of the hiring of Osborne, in which Fink said Osborne offered a "unique and valuable perspective on the issues affecting the world."

It added: "Understanding local market, policy, regulatory, technology, business and investment dynamics is integral to serving our clients and navigating our business. That is why BlackRock works with various senior advisers and strategists who bring a range of experiences in business, finance, academia and the public sector. We look for people who can offer our clients and investors a unique and valuable perspective on the issues that are shaping our world."

It offered no specific comment on Harrison.

In Britain, the US company has won public tenders to manage pensions connected to investment for county councils, the National Health Service, and public property funds. And this while the company holds a portfolio of real estate itself in the UK.

The US giant investor's business strategy has the power to influence competition rules and their impact in Europe. With its trillions of dollars, BlackRock buys significant parts of the largest companies in the world.

About two-thirds of BlackRock's financial muscle comes from pensions. After managing the majority of American pension funds, BlackRock has become a decisive shareholder in almost all key sectors in Europe: industry, banking, services, agri-food.

If this stakeholder couples with the influence of €2.1trillion held as European private pensions, who can tell what weight this company will have at the negotiation tables where Europe's economy is decided?

"BlackRock is a reflection of the retreat of the social state," says Daniela Gabor, a professor of economics at West of England University.

Investigate Europe asked BlackRock for an interview and submitted a long list of specific questions, including whether - since privatisation of pensions schemes in Europe was a divisive issue - they had taken this into account in their approach.

BlackRock declined the offer of an interview or to answer this specific question.

Investigate Europe is a pan-European pilot project: a team of nine journalists from eight European countries who research topics of European relevance and publish with media partners Europe-wide. The project is supported by Germany's Hans-Boeckler-Stiftung, Rudolf-Augstein-Stiftung and Stiftung Huebner&Kennedy, the Norwegian foundation Fritt Ord and the Open Society Initiative for Europe. The team cooperates with the NGOs Journalismfund and N-Ost

ORIGINAL LINK: https://euobserver.com/economic/142020

#pensions #blackrock #investigation #investigate europe #private pensions #transnational pensions #lobby

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