Neat: workers were cheated out of millions

a great Feast was. On Wednesday, 30. May 2018, has been installed in the Ceneri base tunnel, the last of the "Golden" threshold is a key milestone for the completion of the 15.4 kilometre long railway tunnels with two tubes, Camorino, near Bellinzona, Lugano, and for the last element in the building of the Century of the Neat, the transversal of the New Alps, forms. The commissioning is planned for December 2020.

But not all of them were in a celebrating mood. "If the guests only knew what we have suffered, you would have probably had even less desire to celebrate," says Fouad Zerroudi. The Moroccan was a clerk in the Italian railway construction company, Manufactured and Generale Costruzioni Ferroviarie (GCF), which belong to the Rome-based group Rossi. In the air of the "Falò" of television of Italian Switzerland, RSI, has reported that he recently testified about the untenable conditions at the site of the Ceneri base tunnel, on which he was engaged for 14 months until August of last year.

"This came out of a slavery – I could no longer tolerate it," says Zerroudi his step, the conditions of work to denounce. Often workers had done two shifts in a row, that is, 16 to 17 hours a day. Although he had no training, he was as engineer of the little train used by the workers in the Tunnel were taken.

Other workers took the floor, but only anonymously. However, the Tenor is the same everywhere: The shift lengths of 8 or 9 hours were not adhered to, as well as the prescribed breaks. The total work of the contract for the track construction provides for a maximum of 45 hours of work per week.

construction companies filled the pay slip false

Especially piquant: Even if a layer 13 or 14 hours lasted, were shown on the pay slip only 8 hours. However, the workers had to work not only much longer than allowed. You were not given the total work of the contract required minimum wage of 4624 francs for Unskilled workers, but according to estimates by the trade Union Unia, less than half. Some Albanians, who were also as posted workers, and temporary contracts for the GCF on the Ceneri base tunnel construction site, reports that they had to reimburse a portion of their salary to the company.

The two Italian companies had signed up to 170 workers for the Ceneri-site. But no-one knows have worked, how many really there, because workers had been reported, been on a construction site in Denmark. Unia-trade unionists Igor Cima, who has met many workers, says the overall picture: "situations of this kind I have found on large construction sites in the Canton of Ticino." His colleague Enrico Borelli is indignant: "this is about systematic abuses. We are experiencing a Lombardi tion of the Ticino." Because Italian companies paid only on paper, Swiss wages, in truth, these would be pressed bypassed, or forced back payments to Italian levels.

what sum of money the affected workers were, overall, bruised is assessed on the basis of the Documents difficult. It should go at least to a high single-digit million sum. "The amount is certainly huge," says Borelli.

request at the company's management remained unanswered

The Unia's representatives are convinced that the two companies are not only civil, but also criminal law have been found guilty. Of forgery, coercion and the possible usury. The Unia has turned on the Ticino Prosecutor's office. This has already made the first investigation actions. The cantonal labour Inspectorate has started investigations.

The two accused companies reject all the accusations. "There was neither excessive nor double layers," said Roberto Garilli, site Manager of GCF and Manufactured, in the TV show. Of irregularities, he wanted to know nothing. A written request from the Sunday newspaper to the company's management in Rome, remained unanswered.

The case also deals with the employers 'and workers' representatives assembled by the joint Commission for the construction of railway lines. You have, in the framework of a so-called posting control is active. Such control is started when a foreign company in Switzerland. Controlled the working conditions, wages, hours of work, premium pay – i.e., whether the total work is complied with the contract.

a Builder of the tunnel: Dieter Schwank, CEO of the Alptransit Gotthard AG.

"Because it is a pending investigation, we cannot give any information," says Commission Secretary Patrizia De Ciccio. But it is already clear that an investigation of this Committee are to set limits. That's because it works on the basis of the submitted documents. Be deleted, as in the Ceneri happen that data related to working hours and access controls or falsified, is to find this out.

owner of the Ceneri base tunnel, the Alptransit Gotthard AG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBB . It notes that the working group Mons Ceneris of the company, is contractually committed to, the working conditions according to the collective employment contract and the supplementary agreement for the underground structures to be observed. "As soon as the Alptransit Gotthard AG the existence of verifiable facts about irregularities, we will encourage our contract partners to comply with their obligations," says Alptransit-chief Dieter fluctuations.

He refers to the fact that not Alptransit employer of the individual workers, but the working group, which signed for the installation of the roadway and logistics in the Ceneri base tunnel responsible. Schwank: "The Alptransit Gotthard AG will be meeting soon with the Association, and also to the here discussed points."

Also in Denmark, in a case of wage dumping

The working group involved in the Swiss construction company Marti, Mancini & Marti and Pizzarotti include, in addition to the two defendant companies Manufactured and GCF. The consortium has won the tender for Los roadway and logistics at the price of 96 million Swiss francs in 2013. The cost-effective offer played, among others, against competitors of a role.

The Italian company GCF with branches in the whole of Europe, not for the first Time in conflict with workers and unions. In Denmark it came to construction sites also poses problems. In the case of the Danish police, two procedures for violations of the labour law are pending. A number of non-paid Overtime were paid during the construction of the new metro line in the city rings in the capital, Copenhagen. "We have found that the workers were working up to 14 hours a day and sometimes 7 days per week, but on the pay slips of only 37 hours a week were reported," says Silas Fi of the Danish trade Union 3F. This number of hours is in Denmark, the weekly Maximum.

After negotiations between the social partners, it was agreed in an out-of-court settlement Payment of 12 million Danish crowns, with GCF. That's the equivalent of 1.8 million Swiss francs. Of about a hundred workers for the GCF in Copenhagen, were only nine in the case of the trade Union representations, to be a part of this money to pick up. "We do not assume that the other out of fear of the employer have dared to take this step," says a trade unionist Fi.

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(Sunday newspaper)

Created: 27.04.2019, 19:55 PM