The following is an interview with Michal from the Groenflex case. It was given to a local Dutch newspaper as part of an ongoing journalistic investigation into the practices of Groenflex and other work agencies in Holland.

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Hello, my name is Michal and I am 31 years old. Thank you for your interest in my case and what happened during my stay in Holland as a temporary worker.

The temporary work agency Groen Flex is the Polish subsidiary of the Dutch company Eurocontract. My contact with the company was very short. On December 12th last year, I signed a preliminary contract with the company. I left for Holland on December 14th. I found Groen Flex through the internet. In Poland, the fall-winter season is idle in my line of work (I am a gardener by profession), so I have been looking for work abroad in the gardening/farming line of work.

Why Holland? I have already worked in my profession in your country before, and as I have mentioned, this season is idle in Poland. Another reason to go so quickly was that my mother has breast cancer and a lot of money is needed for the treatment. Only working abroad could pay enough money to help my mother.

The contract I have signed in Poland was only a preliminary agreement with Groen Flex. The proper seasonal work contract with Eurocontract was signed only in Holland in the Eurocontract office. The contract I have signed in Holland was written both in Polish and Dutch. While signing the contract, a translator working for Eurocontract was present.

I paid attention to health insurance while signing the agreement in Poland and the proper contract in Holland. Both contracts stated that I was to be insured and that part of my wages would go to insurance. This turned out to be untrue, as I later found out.

I had experience working in Holland in my profession (gardening). In Poland, I have also worked as a carpenter during the winter season.

I started work for Groen Flex/Eurocontract on December 15th - the day after I arrived in Holland. After signing the contract, the coordinator took me to a shipyard.

I told the coordinator that this must be a mistake, because I was supposed to work in my profession, but she replied that she doesn’t know anything and that she was asked to drive me to work with ships. I said once again that this must be a mistake, because I have never
worked in a shipyard and I don't know English.

The coordinator said she would ask in the company and left.

In the shipyard, I was asked to work for ZMC (Zeeland Maritime Cleaning), a company that cleans ships. I was sent to clean a warship (another paradox, since I am a pacifist). I have to mention that I have not received any work safety training. On the first day there were some problems because of my lack of knowledge of English language. I worked three days in the first week, and another three in the second week. In the day of the accident, December 29th, me and other workers started preparing the equipment. I was supposed to insert the pipe of an industrial vacuum cleaner in the hull of the ship (i don’t know the exact terms). In the preceding days we were cleaning the sides of the hull, removing rust and layers of sediment from the walls.

When going inside the hull, I had no mask on my face. Earlier on, while also working with cleaning, we also had no masks. All we had was a single use protection suit, which wore off quite quickly. Perhaps the hull was still full of chemical gases from cleaning. In any case, my head started turning and felt acute pain in my chest. My coworker took me to fresh air out of the ship. This didn't help. I was then led to the office space of the shipyard and waited for an ambulance there.

In the meantime, our foreman informed Eurocontract about the accident.

I was hospitalised in Vlissingen, where I had my heart checked, etc. A Polish person acting as a translator was with me all the time, but he was in no way connected with Eurocontract. He was there all the time and that is the only reason I could communicate with the doctors in the hospital.

What he told me is that I would be staying in the hospital for one day at the cardiology department. Until then I had no problems with my heart, so I was quite scared.

During my one day long stay at the hospital, no one from the company visited me. No one was interested in the accident. On the next day, I had to wait for 5 hours for a company car to take me from the hospital, and that only because of the help of a nurse in the hospital. She called to Eurocontract explaining that I have no way to reach Ovezande (the place where I was living).

Since the day of the accident until my return to Poland, the representatives of Eurocontract assured me that I am insured and that I don't have to worry about the costs, since "a deal is a deal".

During the period of December 30th-January 8th I did not work for a single day, because I was told there was no work for me. This was not true.

During that time new workers from Poland kept coming, and they were sent to work in gardening! I had to return to Poland, because the company did not require my work anymore. I barely had enough money to come back to Poland. I only worked for 6 days for the company and I had to cover the costs of the housing and the working shoes.

I received the 2300 Euro bill from the hospital in February. Before that, I received a notification from the insurance company that they would not be covering the costs of my treatment. I called Groen Flex many times on the same day. I was able to connect only when I called from a different mobile phone. When asked about the hospital bill and about the insurance, the person talking to me (perhaps the head of Groen Flex) advised me to appeal the insurer’s decision or file a case at the Labour Court [translator's note: the company knew very well that the court cases against Groen Flex are dropped by courts in Poland].

This was the end of the conversation. I was left alone with the bill from the hospital. However, as it turned out, there were people who decided to help me.

Thanks to people from ZSP (Union of Syndicalists of Poland) and their help I felt that there is hope. Thanks to contacts with the Amsterdam Anarchist Group, things started to turn in my favour.

On March 13th, activists from ZSP from several cities in Poland decided to occupy the office of Groen Flex in Opole, as my requests and the letters from the unionists at ZSP to Groen Flex did not bring any results. ZSP members were joined at the action by unionists from OZZ IP (Workers Initiative) and FA (Anarchist Federation) activists, about 30 people in total. On the same day, an action in Holland took place, organized by the activists from the Amsterdam Anarchist Group.

After the media highlighted the case in Opole and in Holland, the head of Groen Flex contacted me after one week to send the bill to the company, as they now had the intention to pay it. He confirmed during the conversation that none of the workers from Poland were insured.

This was one of the reasons of our protest in Opole.

As of today (May 18th) I still am not quite sure the bill has been paid. I have received a letter from the hospital, sent to me by Eurocontract, but the confirmation of payment was only written by hand.

The Groen Flex/Eurocontract case is still not quite finished. As a matter of fact, it will not be finished until such companies will stop treating people as expendable. What the temporary work agencies are doing is a contemporary form of slave trade. So ZSP’s campaign still continues, with the help of friends from AGA.

As of today, I can’t afford to take a break at work, problems at home are not over, I have personal problems related with my work for Groen Flex/Eurocontract – I still have got to pay my debts which I incurred for that unlucky trip.

To conclude, I would like to thank all those who were involved in my case, especially people from ZSP, OZZ IP and FA in Poland, and friends from AGA in Holland. There are no limits for exploitation, poverty and lack of respect for workers rights, but – as I found out - there are also no borders for friendship and solidarity in fighting against this
wrongdoing.

Michal