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Landscaping for municipal spaces in Warsaw (parks, sidewalks, roadsides) is contracted out to several firms. Like most municipal contracts, low price is one of the main criteria for winning a public tender and firms tend to make savings at the cost of the workers.

Our comrade works at one of these companies. The workers all come from villages about an hour and a half from Warsaw. The people travel each day back and forth to work for miserable pay because there is huge unemployment in their area. Previously, people like them would have worked seasonally on very small farms, but that type of work is also growing more scarce. Many of the garden workers are also older people, in their 40s and 50s, who find it harder and harder to compete on the job market for higher-paid work.

The first thing that the workers rebelled against was the fact that the company wanted to charge them each month for the cost of transport into Warsaw. They managed to get the firm to provide the transport for free. Next, they were concerned about the conditions of their contracts. The workers were to be paid by the hectare; they said that they preferred to be paid by the hour. The first option, they felt, would be problematic and lead to disputes about measurement.

The workers thought they "won" that one to except that 1) the change in payment criteria is oral and not written in a new contact and 2) the amount they receive is slightly under the statutory minimum wage.

For 240 (!) hours of work a month, employees take home around 330 euros (net).

Last week our comrade told us how it was working in 35 degree heat. (That's 95 F) The company agreed to let the people work 8 hours instead of 10. A few people however were opposed since they are paid by the hour.

People are treated as if they should be lucky to have any job and are expected to endure this extremely difficult and poorly paid seasonal work. Only a few of the workers can expect to have jobs in the winter when the company gets other types of contracts from the city. In these conditions, some of the workers treat their situation as "only temporary" and see little point in organizing themselves better. Which only makes them more vulnerable.

Currently attempts are being made to regulate payments and ensure them contractually. Besides that, people are asking for lighter work conditions at the same pay during the hottest days, especially for older people or the workers with some medical risks who can be seriously effected by physical work in the heat.