Harvest workers
Harvest workers are workers in agriculture for seasonal support in the harvest season . Nowadays they are mainly used where machine harvesting is not possible or only possible with restrictions, such as during the grape harvest or the harvest of field vegetables . Most of the harvest workers come from Eastern Europe .
Legal Status
Germany
Short-term employment is often an option for working as a harvest worker in Germany . The prerequisite for this is that German law is applied.
For employees who do not in Germany reported , must first be examined are whether those in their home country an employed or self-employed activities to pursue. If this is not the case, the employees are subject to German legal provisions and are therefore subject to social security contributions in Germany . If they work in their home country, the legal provisions of their home country must be observed.
In the course of the measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, many harvest workers were not or were not allowed to leave their home countries. When Austria and Hungary closed their borders in March 2020, seasonal workers from Romania could no longer enter Germany via these countries. The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture founded the online platform “daslandhilft.de” in cooperation with the Maschinenring , so that volunteers could register for harvest work. The online platform started on March 23, 2020. Computer science students at the Technical University of Berlin founded the online platform Harvest Success . On March 25, 2020, the federal government imposed an entry ban for harvest workers. Members of the Bundestag Albert Stegemann and Gitta Connemann wrote a letter to Merkel, Seehofer and Klöckner, in which they demanded an immediate lifting of the entry ban. Even Christian Baldauf demanded in a letter to Horst Seehofer , a temporary opening of the border for harvest workers from Romania and Poland. The Green politician Filiz Polat was one of the critics of the entry ban . In order to compensate for the loss of harvest workers from Eastern Europe, Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner suggested the use of asylum seekers. On April 2, 2020, Julia Klöckner and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer agreed that the entry ban for harvest workers would be relaxed and that a limited entry of seasonal workers to secure the harvest would be allowed. On April 4, 2020, the Romanian Interior Minister Marcel Vela announced that seasonal workers would be allowed to travel abroad by plane despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The airline Eurowings announced on April 6th that it would bring tens of thousands of harvest workers to Germany with special flights. On April 9th, the first special planes with harvest workers from Romania landed in Baden-Baden, Düsseldorf and Berlin. The flights were paid for by the farmers themselves. There were strict rules for the quarantine-like accommodation of the harvest workers. The accommodations had to be on the farmers' premises. The Bundestag member Friedrich Ostendorff advocated using only German workers in the vegetable harvest during the COVID-19 pandemic. In some regions, students were used as harvest workers instead.
Austria
The work permit is in Austria by the Employment Service issued (AMS) for a period not exceeding six weeks, and noted in the travel document. The pickers are under § 5. 1 (2) of the foreign employment law from the insurance in the pension insurance excluded.
There have been changes due to the opening of the labor market since January 1, 2014 for employees from Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Since then, they have enjoyed full freedom of movement for workers , no longer require a harvest helper permit and are subject to full insurance as agricultural unskilled workers or, in the commercial sector, as workers.
The Maschinenring Austria since 2015 volunteers provides the ability to board and lodging by the day and not to cooperate only at harvest time on farms.
According to the Austrian Chamber of Agriculture, around 13,800 harvest workers and seasonal workers come to Austria from abroad, most of them from Romania.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, an online platform was set up on which volunteers could register for harvest work, as many harvest workers were not allowed to leave their home countries. The platform "dielebensmittelhelfer.at" was organized by the Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Regions and Tourism , the Federal Ministry for Labor, Family and Youth , the Chamber of Agriculture and the Chamber of Commerce .
Spain
In Spain harvest workers from North African countries have been used for years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of harvest workers from Morocco were missing because the border closed on March 13, 2020.
Web links
- Open-air season: What to watch out for with temporary workers and seasonal workers. In: haufe.de. June 20, 2013, accessed November 7, 2016 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mini jobs in the commercial sector - foreign workers. (No longer available online.) In: minijob-zentrale.de. Archived from the original on November 7, 2016 ; Retrieved November 7, 2016 .
- ↑ The most important social security rules for seasonal workers. In: haufe.de. Retrieved November 7, 2016 .
- ↑ https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/wegen-corona-fehlen-viele-erntehelfer,RtfhXCc
- ↑ https://www.daslandhilft.de/
- ↑ https://daslandhilft.maschinenring.de/boerse?tab=map
- ↑ https://www.br.de/nachrichten/wirtschaft/online-plattform-bringt-landwirte-und-arbeitssuchende-z together,Ru0AEqn
- ↑ https://www.rbb-online.de/rbbkultur/radio/programm/schema/sendung/rbbkultur_am_vorestag/archiv/20200403_0905/wissen_0910.html
- ↑ https://www.dw.com/de/einreisestopp-f%C3%BCr-erntehelfer/a-52914755
- ↑ https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/corona-saisonarbeiter-knappheit-101.html
- ↑ https://www.rheinpfalz.de/lokal/pfalz-ticker_artikel,-baldauf- Ford-zeitweilige- Grenz%C3%B6ffnung-f%C3%BCr-erntehelfer-aus-polen-und-rum%C3% A4nien- _arid, 5049254.html
- ↑ Michael Schwager: Filiz Polat criticizes entry ban for harvest workers. In: noz.de. March 27, 2020, accessed May 15, 2020 .
- ↑ ssu / dpa-AFX: NRW mobilizes thousands of voluntary asparagus diggers. In: Spiegel Online . March 28, 2020, accessed May 15, 2020 .
- ↑ https://www.bmel.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/2020/062-corona-saisonarbeitskraefte-einreise-konzept.html
- ↑ https://www.dw.com/de/erntehelfer-aus-rum%C3%A4nien-deutschland-kann-auf-mich-z%C3%A4hlen/a-53052905
- ↑ https://newscloud.eurowings.com/de/meldung/2020/q2/eurowings-holt-erntehelfer-ins-land.html
- ^ Badische Zeitung: The first Romanian harvest workers for the southwest have landed. In: badische-zeitung.de. April 13, 2020, accessed May 15, 2020 .
- ↑ https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/erntehelfer-einreise-101.html
- ↑ https://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/video/sendung/lokalzeit-muensterland/video-helfer-bei-spargel--und-erdbeerbauern-100.html
- ↑ a b dpa-infocom GmbH: entry of harvesters: Unclear how many remain in NRW. In: welt.de . April 9, 2020, accessed May 15, 2020 .
- ↑ https://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/video/sendung/lokalzeit-muensterland/video-helfer-bei-spargel--und-erdbeerbauern-100.html
- ↑ Katharina Weber, Sven Westbrock: Missing seasonal workers: Students support local farms as harvest workers. In: general-anzeiger-bonn.de. April 8, 2020, accessed May 15, 2020 .
- ↑ Information about harvest workers on the website "help.gv.at" of the Austrian Federal Chancellery, accessed on September 13, 2014
- ↑ https://www.maschinenring.at/freiwillig-am-bauernhof
- ↑ https://www.dielebensmittelhelfer.at/
- ↑ https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/heute/studie-moegitäten-fuer-legale-wege-nach-europa-100.html
- ↑ https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/375187.coronapandemie-in-spanien-not-in-europas-speisekammer.html
