For those unfamiliar with the story, the lorry drivers have been on strike for a month at Gräfenhausen, a German motorway service area in southern Hesse.
The truckers are demanding more than half a million euros altogether from Agmaz, reports the German Press Association. Nearly 120 drivers have decided to down tools until the dispute is resolved.
The total amount is 543,002 euros, said Edwin Atema, a Dutch member of the European Transport Workers’ Union. Atema, who played a key role in resolving the last Agmaz strike, has been appointed spokesperson again by the drivers at Gräfenhausen.
Some of the drivers, who herald from Georgia as well as Central Asian countries like Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan among others, claim they have not been paid for five months.
Heutige Pressekonferenz in #Gräfenhausen zur Situation der Lkw-Fahrer – #Mazur, seine Methoden und die Auftraggeber. Wer übernimmt die Verantwortung?@AtemaEdwin @DGBHeTh pic.twitter.com/yMiteTTGEu
— Faire Mobilität (@FaireMobilitaet) August 18, 2023
Atema said at a press conference last Friday that the drivers earn so little that they can’t even feed their families. He also claimed the drivers don’t have money to spend one euro on the toilet at German rest areas, and feel like slaves.
What’s more, DGB of Hesse-Thuringia, the umbrella organisation of German trade unions, claims the drivers face deductions from their wages if they cause an accident or are guilty of a traffic offence.
Porsche, Audi, Ikea and Red Bull shipments found in Agmaz’s trailers
In the Friday press conference, it was also revealed that big names like Red Bull, IKEA, Bauhaus, Obi, Audi, DHL, Dachser, Porsche, Intercargo and Rosner Logistik all had shipments in the Agmaz trailers parked at Gräfenhausen.
***Pressekonferenz*** in #Gräfenhausen heute um 15.00 Uhr.
Lkw-Fahrer machen öffentlich welche Unternehmen in der #Lieferkette an ihrer Ausbeutung beteiligt sind.
Ebenfalls vor Ort:@RSternatz, Stellvertretende Vorsitzende @DGBHeTh und @AtemaEdwin #RTDD pic.twitter.com/RGbzOoQ0XO— Faire Mobilität (@FaireMobilitaet) August 18, 2023
According to DGB, in April this year, the drivers of the first Gräfenhausen protest sent petitions to DHL and Intercargo describing their exploitative situation and asking for help from these companies.
Despite these petitions, and even after the arrest of company owner Mazur in April 2023, it is claimed that these companies are still having their goods transported via Mazur’s trucks.
“This makes it clear to everyone that these companies accept breaking the law and violating the requirements of the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LKSG). Large industrial logistics companies and multinationals are still not acting in accordance with the law, which is to the detriment of the drivers and their legitimate demands,” stresses DGB.
When Agmaz drivers first went on strike in Gräfenhausen in April, some customers used the excuse that they didn’t know that Mazur’s companies were involved in their supply chain, Atema said.
“Nobody can hide behind that anymore,” Atema added.
However, a statement given to German tabloid Bild by a DHL Group spokesperson has suggested otherwise:
“There is still no direct contractual relationship with the Mazur Group. In April, after the allegations became known, we immediately put the company on a group-wide blacklist in order to rule out future orders. According to our present knowledge, a transport company commissioned by us has, contrary to our supplier code of conduct and contractual agreement, outsourced an order without our absolutely necessary prior consent, in which a part load was then consolidated, i.e. combined with the goods of other forwarders.”
Dodgy working hours and administration
Amid the ongoing Agmaz strike saga, the Polish language service of trans.iNFO contacted the local Labour Inspectorate to ask if Agmaz and its sister companies had been inspected recently. It turned out that such activities had been completed at the end of July.
At all three companies, inspectors examined records of working hours and confirmations of payment of wages. The analysis of these documents showed that foreign drivers working on the basis of mandate contracts “received remuneration determined in accordance with the applicable rate of the minimum hourly wage for the number of working hours presented by the inspected entity”.
However, the aforementioned documents showed that these workers only worked a few dozen hours per month.
The inspectors doubted whether this was actually the case. They asked the employer to provide the digital files from tachographs and driver cards. This is where the first red flag arose.
“The files submitted by the employer were damaged and it was impossible for the programme to read them,” says Anna Majerek, spokesperson for the District Labour Inspectorate in Krakow. The employer also claimed that there were no other files.
As a result, administrative proceedings are currently pending against these companies. The companies could be fined for “failure to submit files that would enable the control of drivers’ working time”.
What’s more, the inspection found that “foreigners worked fewer hours than indicated in their work permits”, meaning that their work was carried out in contravention of the permits.
Those responsible were fined, the District Labour Inspectorate added, though the amount of the fine was not disclosed.
Employer takes legal action against its drivers
Meanwhile, the owner of Agmaz has filed a criminal complaint against the drivers.
In a recent interview with trans.INFO, Łukasz Mazur insisted that all salaries had been paid in accordance with the contracts and that the current strike was an illegal protest. He also considers the demands for money to be a means of demanding ransom for the company’s lorries.
Therefore, Mazur has filed a complaint with the public prosecutor’s office in Darmstadt against his lorry drivers on suspicion of extortion.
Bisher angemessen gute Stimmung in #Gräfenhausen bei der polizeilichen Identitätsfeststellung. Die Fahrer kooperieren und alles läuft sozialverträglich ab. @DGBHeTh @AtemaEdwin pic.twitter.com/JjzMcxqwkJ
— Faire Mobilität (@FaireMobilitaet) August 16, 2023
On 16 August, police visited the striking lorry drivers to collect their personal data and explain their rights.
The next step, according to the police, would be to grant the drivers a legal hearing in order to check whether and to what extent criminal offences might have been committed as part of the investigation.
Article produced in cooperation with Dorota Ziemkowska from trans.iNFO’s Polish Language Service