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Poland and Polish Discussion Group and Forum

Welcome to the original English language Poland and Polish discussion group board. This message forum is a place where English-speaking Poles, foreigners (expats) living in Poland, and anyone with a genuine interest in Poland can discuss and read the views of others concerning Poland. Subjects include: Polish news and current affairs; Life in Poland; politics; genealogy research; Polish culture and history; advice and tips on visiting Poland; Polish property and investment issues. The aim of our group is to increase awareness of wonderful Poland using the English language and allow and foster the honest debate and exchange of opinions on anything vaguely related to Poland and Polish - positive, negative and/or neutral! This discussion group is not an open-to-all public message board. Membership is by invitation only and therefore given that a fairly limited number of people have full access, it is more of a community blog than a straightforward forum. This application system was brought in to lessen the amount of spam and nonsensical and commercial posts made by casual visitors and off-topic and offensive posts left by a disruptive minority. To ask  a one-off question about Poland or respond to comments made on this board without a password just email us and provided it is at least halfway sensible, we'll post it on the board for all to see and current members will try to respond! All opinions and views expressed on this site are solely those of their respective authors and are not necessarily those of anyone else!

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Another Ania



Jan 27, 08 - 10:22 PM 		UK: Marsh suspends protesting cleaners

I thought the article below was interesting because I have recently had some Polish visitors looking for work and finding agencies who seem able to pay below the minimum wage because of a loophole in the legislation. At least the people below ARE getting the min wage. Many others are working for less and are unaware of their rights. There are also people regularly working for free in top hotels in London on "trial" periods.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jan/27/insurance.tradeunions

American insurance group Marsh has insisted that 12 contract
cleaners employed at its City of London headquarters be suspended
from duty, after they held a protest demanding improved pay and
conditions.

The cleaners, most of whom are Polish, are employed by contractor
ISS at an hourly rate of £5.60. After their night-shift ended last
Thursday morning, they joined a protest organised by the trade union
Unite, as part of its long-running Justice for Cleaners campaign.

But Marsh subsequently identified the employees involved, and
demanded ISS remove them from the contract immediately. As a result,
ISS has suspended the cleaners on full pay, and hopes to transfer
them to other locations in London in the next few days. 'We don't
like to lose good people,' said a spokesman for ISS.

One of the suspended cleaners, who did not want to be identified for
fear of further reprisals, told The Observer: 'I have to clean 600
desks in a night, and it's very hard work.

'We just want to be treated like human beings. When I came to
England, I knew that I couldn't work in an office, because I do not
speak English. I know my place. But I expected people to think of me
as a human being.'

Most of the cleaners had worked at the company for at least a year.
They were campaigning for a 'living wage', more than the statutory
minimum, sick pay and pension rights.

Paul Davies, Unite campaign manager, said: 'This is an absolute
infringement of people's rights to free speech and protest. People
should be allowed to say, "I have been wronged" and not be punished
for it.'

A spokesman for Marsh declined to comment. The US group is the
world's largest insurance broker, and also owns private
investigation firm Kroll.


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