Ombudsman confirms discriminatory treatment in case of Polish workers

The Czech ombudsman, Otakár Motejl, has revealed that Polish nationals recruited by an agency to work for car producer Škoda Auto on a temporary basis were treated worse than fulltime Czech colleagues. Checks at the jobs agency, Zetka Auto, which recruited the workers, uncovered “extensive shortcomings” the ombudsman made clear in a year-end report. The Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza first raised the alarm in October 2006: the jobs agency at the time admitted that it paid workers a monthly wage of little over 10 thousand crowns per month, around half the regular salary in the sector. The daily charged that the some 900 Polish workers were sometimes forced to work 16 hours without a break, that wages were often paid late and that they were a fraction of what workers had been promised. Legal proceedings were launched against Zetka Auto following an investigation by the Czech labour office. Following the scandal, Škoda Auto changed its procedure for selecting agencies recruiting temporary labour.

Author: Jan Velinger