Speaking to Onet, Agmaz boss Łukasz Mazur said that the lorry drivers who are on strike have not gone unpaid as they had all agreed to lengthy payment terms. He appeared to express surprise over the occurrence of the strike, claiming that drivers had worked for years under the same contractual conditions without any problems.
The Onet interview stated that the drivers are employed using ‘Umowa zlecenie’ contracts – the Polish equivalent of a zero hours contract. Such agreements allow employers to tap into labour on demand and reduce hours whenever it makes business sense to do so.
During the interview, Mazur hinted that one of the issues sparking the labour dispute is payment for Sunday work. The haulage boss said that due to a lack of transport orders, he informed staff in January and February that Agmaz would not pay its drivers for Sunday work.
Mazur added that the drivers were then offered the opportunity to resign if they were unhappy with the new arrangement, an option the haulier says nobody took up.
According to the haulage boss, the drivers were also reminded that due to the lack of payment for work on Sundays, their salaries would be lower than they had been previously.
The second problem that appears to have sparked the strike is payment terms. The drivers claim they have gone unpaid for the best part of 2 months. However, according to Mazur, the drivers all signed up to payment terms of several weeks. Offering an example, Mazur said that salaries for January were paid on March 15th.
Mazur told Onet that the one-and-a-half-month settlement period is due to the time it takes to receive documents from drivers and verify them. The haulier claimed that only on this basis can the company settle accounts with drivers and its clients from Europe.
This arrangement, Mazur told Onet, was accepted by some Agaz lorry drivers for 6 years prior to the recent strike action. The haulier then implied in the interview that one of its former drivers from the Netherlands was to blame for the strike. Mazur said that the Dutch driver had insisted to current Agmaz staff that it simply couldn’t be the case that they are paid so late.
Zusammenhalt in #Gräfenhausen auch heute ungebrochen. Das gilt auch für den Besucherstrom aus Gewerkschaften, Landes- und Bundespolitik und von Pressevertreter*innen. Toll auch die vielen LKWs, die am Platz solidarisch grüßend vorbeifahren. @_verdi @dgb_news @SKoerzell pic.twitter.com/Id1pjFA1f0
— Faire Mobilität (@FaireMobilitaet) April 13, 2023
To try and resolve the dispute, Mazur said he offered the striking truckers a one-off payment of €1,000 and a promise that the situation could be resolved at the company’s base.
When the offer was rejected, and the German police refused to facilitate the transfer of the trucks to replacement drivers, Mazur said he turned to the Rutkowski security company.
Meanwhile, the widespread media coverage generated by the strike, and the failed intervention of the Rutkowski security staff, has sparked something of a public relations disaster for Agmaz.
The story has mobilised unions and attracted the attention of politicians and trade bodies. Members of the public have even been been visiting the Gräfenhausen rest area to show their solidarity and deliver toiletries and food packages.
A message of solidarity from @ETF_Europe‘s @frankmoreelsETF to truck drivers across Eastern Europe taking strike action this week: pic.twitter.com/lHPfxdnlcv
— International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) (@ITFglobalunion) April 13, 2023
To make matters worse for Agmaz, the storm surrounding the company appears to have spooked some of its customers. According to faz.de, digital freight forwarder sennder has ceased cooperation with the company. LKW Walter has also reportedly suspended cooperation.