Galery

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“The man, who attacked me was wearing grey clothes like a policeman,” writes 44 year old Konstantina Kouneva on a piece of paper, announced “Elefterotypia” newspaper. The Bulgarian, who was splashed with acid before the Christmas holidays is still fighting for her life in the Athens “Evangelismos” hospital.

So there are no misunderstandings, she says “clothes like policeman’s” but policemen do not wear grey clothes, so it was probably a work uniform.

Her colleagues are scared to talk even though some of them have not been paid for four months. The ones, who decide to talk, prefer to keep their anonymity.

“I used to work in a hospital, together with 80 colleagues. People from the State Inspectorate came to check us, because we have filed a claim through our syndicate. We filed it because we haven’t been paid for four months. The Inspectorate concluded that we receive 350 Euros and we get free days but we have signed contracts, which say that we should be paid 600 Euros. After that, slowly, slowly they fired us all.”

It is a classic exploitation case in the cleaning field. But how does the system function? Private firm take orders for cleaning public establishments and hospitals. The main criterion is the low price of the service and from then on, no one cares how the employer manages to lower the price.

In the case of ECOMET, where Konstantina Kouneva used to work, the decrease of the price comes when the workers sign personal contracts, with which they are obliged to rest between 30 and 45 minutes. This way, their work hours decrease to 5 hours and 30 minutes--in other words, the time determined by law, which allows workers to get health insurance decreases.

Most workers in this sector are immigrants, who need to work no matter of the bad conditions. This way, their employers do not hesitate to exploit them and to keep them working under bad conditions by constantly threatening them with dismissal.

Frequently, the more beautiful girls become victims of sexual abuse by employers upper in the hierarchy. The victims are young girls – foreigners, who do not speak the language and a pressured by their financial situation. They also need legal apprenticeship in order to be able to get the necessary documents for permanent residence in Greece.

“Kathemerini” newspaper published Konstantina Kouneva’s last interview, which was done by a Belgian photojournalist Jackie DeLorme, who deals with labor and social topics. DeLorme was in Greece at the end of November of last year and was researching workers hired by cleaning offering firms.

“They have threatened to kill me”

The new voice recording, which the photojournalist sent to “Kathemerini” newspaper attests that Konstantina Kouneva and her family were threatened due to her syndicate activity.

In November, DeLorme and Kouneva have met one night at one of the metro stations where the Bulgarian had worked. The conversation starts like that:

-      My colleagues do not greet me. This is how scared they are. Because if they see them talking to me or taking something from me, they get fired right away. It has reached that level.

-      What other problems do you have due to your syndicate activity?

-      They have accused me of stealing; they call me on the phone and threaten me. They say it straight forward without beating around the bush. I guess they will even try to fire me. They have called me on the phone, threatening to kill me. One day they sent the police to get me. Three cars surrounded the Marousi metro station, where I work – it was as if I tried to kill the Pope.

-      They fired your mother too, right?

-      Yes, they fired her because she is my mother. At the beginning she was working in the metro under more normal conditions and after that they sent her elsewhere. Her spine is bent and she cannot stand up. She got even sicker.

-      What are your working hours?

-      I work from 5:30am till 11:30am. Thirty hours per week and I do not get paid.

-      Is it hard to work in your sector from the point of view of health conditions and security?

-      It is hard and dangerous. I am constantly working with chemical and carcinogenesis substances. I have rashes from the chemicals because they do not give us the proper gloves. We used to buy them whenever we could and wore them even if they were thorn. You see, I have a rash on my face. We are 1000 workers, not too many but our employer is terrorizing us. Every time we have elections, a representative of our employer comes – gets in, gets out, and counts everything. Very often in the last few months, employers were fired without a reason. It is clear that our employer has declared us war, after some of the syndicate members succeeded in court. We do not have the required help from the State. The inspection mechanisms of the work environment do not function in our advantage but in the advantage of the employers. We deal with everything alone.