Workers at National Stadium Construction Site not Paid; Work Stoppage Immiment

Workers at the construction site of the National Stadium in Warsaw, being built for UEFA 2012, are having trouble getting paid. There have already been some strikes and walkouts. More and more people are quitting their jobs and more work stoppage is immiment.

The work organization at the Stadium is so complex and some workers are not even sure who they are working for.

Some of the workers have no contracts at all.

The Alpine-PBG S.A.-Hydrobudowa Polska SA. Budowa group (a group including the German Alpine BAU) is divided into 12 sections. Each of these sections have a contractor which is usually a consortium of several firms, and each of these contractors use subcontractors, who in turn may use other subcontractors. This means that many workers are hired through a chain of 6-7 firms, each of which wait up to 14 days to get paid and pay the subcontractors. As a result, many workers have had delays in getting their salaries of up to 3 months.

And the salaries are very poor anyway.

Starting last month there were some work stoppages at the building site. The State Labour Inspectorate showed up but it does not seem to be doing much to improve the situation.

Next week the Union of Syndicalists will hold a demonstration at the building site. It is protesting against common abuses among contractors and subcontracting firms which are too common at building sites throughout Poland.