become a citizen. margaret's your platform of information. this is the w. news live from berlin and trying to flee or told. there are conflicting reports over what happened to a bellow would see in protest leader at the ukrainian border on tuesday morning bella bruce says she was trying to cross over to ukraine official says she was resisting deportation we'll go live to man's. also coming up

a russian dissident tells t w the order to poison alexina bali straight from the top. you. could only have been carried out with the approval of lodging the approaching the cops to be seen down suffered a similar attack and other activists say that poison is just one tactic the kremlin uses it against its enemy plus 2 australian journalists fleet china fearing the rest as political pawns we speak with one of them and ask what's behind china's crackdown on australian media in the country. and the show must go on that's the spirit in venice where the 1st major film festival since the pentagon make it is under way this year's competition features a record number of entries from female to our 1st. time sir. welcome to the program uncertainty remains over what exactly happened on

tuesday morning to one of the leading figures in the opposition movement in officials say that maria coalescent was detained trying to cross the border into ukraine and the authorities released these pictures of a car at the border supposedly carrying kolesnik over the video of an opposition member saying that he and kolesnik called were planning to cross into ukraine is being broadcast on state t.v. but the ukrainian news agency interfax says she resisted attempts to deport her a claim backed up by ukraine's interior minister who said in a facebook post that she has successfully prevented her quote forcible expulsion from bell over. kolesnik over has been leading mass protest against president alexander lukashenko at the latest rally over the weekend more than 600 people were arrested. let's bring in nick connelly who is standing by in the capital minsk with

the very latest for us nick do we have any more information about where kolesnik could be right now especially given all of these competing claims. well now this is still an extraordinary situation all we're working with is the information from the border service that she was detained as they say it trying to cross the border what actually seems to be is an attempt to choke her out as has been already the case with so many other prominent opposition figures who being given the choice either to leave the country or to go behind bars it seems that. was disappeared off the streets of minsk yesterday morning not often downtown minsk was taken to the ukrainian border in the early morning and unlike the other 2 the opposition who were traveling with her she refused to be deported thrown out of her own country as that ukraine official said by lifting up her own pa sport what's extraordinary

details emerging if you as you mentioned one of her colleagues who was claiming that he was willing to leave the country if you get a look stephanie like you was taken under duress where this is going we don't know because they still haven't been any one in touch with lawyers haven't be able to reach out but going out this extraordinary story continues with no chance very eclectic of to say what actually happened and in the meantime we have the belarusians president bush and co speaking out today he apparently told russian media outlets that he might have quote overstayed his presidency a bit nic what are we to make of that. i think we shouldn't take too much of this for right now look cinco someone who says a lot and act very differently to what he puts out in public just last spoke about the need to reform the constitution that you've heard the people's desire for change and now a week later that's all being forgotten i think be some attempt to take the pressure out of the equation and to convince people maybe who are going to wavering

on their spoke protest that he is in some way going to listen i think right now the important thing is to see what his government does rather than what it says and what it's doing throwing its own people out of its own country and just imagine if it's a bellows being deported from their own country arrest continuing people staying behind bars on the charge to keep on getting extended we see the police going to universities trying to quell protests we see people still disappearing never able to contact the money that is the crucial story right now rather than any attempt by the government now to distract them to change the focus following all of those actions on the ground e.w.s. an economy with a view from minsk thank you nic. well moscow has some in the german ambassador over statements that the german government has made about the poisoning of russian opposition leader alexina vali berlin has warned that it could end its support of the 10000000000 euro nord stream 2 pipeline which is sent from double russian gas deliveries to europe if russia fails to investigate than of on the case

on monday and of all new woke up from a medically induced coma in berlin in a hospital german doctors say there is unequivocal evidence that he was poisoned with a soviet era nerve agent. and this case it draws parallels to another russian opposition figure who was poisoned 2 years ago he says the use of know the child and the k. it's that valise poisoning goes all the way to the top it up in moscow correspondent joy of a shuttle ports. is fighting fit but 2 years ago the activist was left fighting for his life struck down by a poison his situation was similar to that of alexina volley but unlike novell me there were no signs of the nerve agent navi chalk. boards and my poisoning wasn't as bad as his i was able to recover more quickly i was already able to speak in the 2nd week of recovery but navi chalk is an extremely strong

point and we were it doesn't make a difference that you want to hurt someone or kill them. chalk is perfect for committing murder or. for the way it's. like not only was treated the balance charity hospital no one could confidently identify the substance that had been given to him his symptoms prompted doctors to suspect poisoning but which never varies he says there is no doubt. the fact but not because bush used clearly points to the russian president up them . or one thing. only secret agents have access to the specific poison. your coalition operation could only have been carried out. of law dimia pretty much . where they were to put all. other opposition figures have been targeted with

less deadly means among them the independent politician dimitri could call one year ago he was barred from standing in the more school city council elections and jailed for 36 days. because. i'm not. an independent local politician and a prominent figure in the mass protests in moscow one year ago she still faces charges for participating in demonstrations. that we live in an authoritarian country in a dictatorship began when it was voted into office without. straining your human rights aren't part of the equation here freedom and justice don't exist here you can be jailed every time you called for people to join a protest. in the face of intimidation. refuses to stay silent since his recovery has become politically active again and not despite the fact he has a young daughter and her sister with me. i want my frame of my family

and my daughter to live in a wonderful country without putin and his disgusting system that years of living i'm sure we can achieve this goal listing the. p.r. would let his daughter go out alone at night and every morning he's by her side on the walk to school. and thus have a look now at some other stories making news around the world tensions escalating between india and china over there just pitted order and the himalayas beijing has accused indian soldiers of illegally crossing the frontier and firing warning shots by leaving an agreement barring the gifts of firearms india said the chinese guards fired into the air a border clash in june left 20 indian soldiers stab. firefighters are tackling a 2nd blaze on an oil tanker off the sri lankan coast days after the 1st was extinguished the vessel was carrying nearly $2000000.00 barrels of crude oil

officials have warned of potentially massive environmental damage if there is a leak or the ship explode this. chinese president xi jinping has defended his country's handling of the koran of a. arik saying beijing acted transparently in its response she was speaking at a ceremony honoring heroes in the fight against the virus he said china was bouncing back from the crisis and that nothing would stop the chinese people from achieving a better future. official campaigning has begun in japan to replace a as the leader of the governing party obvious close allies chief cabinet secretary . is seen as a top candidate and likely successor to lead lead the government 3 candidates will face off in an internal vote on september 14th. and meantime japan's olympics minister says that the tokyo games will happen next year at any cost the

olympics were postponed by a year until next july because of the coronavirus pandemic and there had been media speculation that the event could be scrapped but psycho said that japan owed it to the athletes to host the games no decisions have been taken yet on how many spectators will be allowed to attend officials are considering over $200.00 proposals on how best to deal with the virus 2 australian journalists have returned home from china after being embroiled in a 5 day diplomatic standoff between beijing and come back michael smith of the australian financial review and bill girdles from the public broadcaster the a.b.c. at shelter in our strand sheltered excuse me an australian diplomatic missions following raids on their homes before their departure they were questions by chinese authorities about the case of an australian t.v.

anchor working for chinese state t.v. and it was feared that they could be arrested smith and bernal's were the last 2 representatives of australian mainstream media and china and for more now we are joined by bill burton one of the australian journalists who last try to welcome to the program and thank you so much for joining us if you could just outline for us the events that led to you leaving china. yes sarah thank you this was a pretty fun expected situation just as i was preparing to break the story of the other of the time to stray and chung like last monday my bosses here in sydney receive a call from a stranger as our affairs department sighing we have good reason to think that i and other journalists in shanghai need to get out quickly and for the 1st couple of days it's pretty hard to get slots cut so while reisman surveying my we were also

questioning where those devices coming from you know being journalists were pretty cynical and we want some details but on wednesday night it became clear it meet nice when 6 state security police plus a translator turned up on my doorstep the most curious thing was they weren't there to tie me they were there to tell me that i'm involved in a national security case and therefore i'm not allowed to leave the country they said you still have freedom of movement you still free to go around and do your duty or whatever your business. said we will call you the next day and we need to chess and this sort of spot a matic situation where of course i went to the strain embassy and so what's your advice. and i said we think you should stay here for your safety and you know you mentioned that you were going to do some reporting on the case of 10 lay that's potentially why you've been targeted here we know that she has not been charged

she's being held under what is called residential surveillance at a designated location reportedly this is an anchor who was the face of chinese state media has english service she is an australian citizen what do you think happened here. well i'm not even 100 percent convinced that the situation with myself and the other journalist in shanghai mark smith is actually related to channelize case that was the pretext for police questioning us so i simply said we need to interrogate you in relation to chung ladies case which they ultimately ended up doing at the conclusion of this diplomatic standoff the deal by simply was. the police will interview me and then the chinese government will its exit ban but having gone through that interview i'm not really convinced that police thought that i or the other journalist would have any particularly

useful information it seems to me this is much more reliance of the broader problems in the china australia relationship and the apps we were just pawns in a much bigger situation that's beyond our control so do you think australians are then being targeted now well certainly because the only to australian media journalists left in beijing with china are the only 2 who were targeted to be questions about this case and then when we were actually questions they were really rigorous in trying to extract dances around that case main well this particular news radio channel i do know that there are people including a stray ins in china you know who are a lot better but none of them being called in and interrogated so if anything this looked like a concerted effort to target the strain media in beijing and say that is related

more to the straight shot relationship and there are now no representatives of the australian mainstream media in china how problematic to you see this being considering the close economic relationship that the chip countries have. well the relationship is is awful to be honest between astride you and sean at the moment is probably the worst. since i resumed tas back in the 1970s. it's not going to get any better anytime soon because. i saw it's increasingly forming a view of each other there's no trust and i can't see a white result. so in the meantime yes they want the australian journalists there i think it does a great disservice to strain audiences but also to chon it so it doesn't john or any side has to have you know less information less exchange and less understanding of what's going on there birtles journalist joining us to tell your story we thank

you so much for sharing that here on. and let's have a look at some more stories making news around the world a major wildfire tearing through southern california is believed to have been started by a firework more than 500 firefighters are battling the blaze that started over the weekend scorching conditions are fueling the flames temperatures reached a record 49 degrees celsius on sunday. france's health minister and the v.a. there on said that they corona virus situation in the country is quote worrying that as the number of new delhi infections reaches record levels but the health minister said that a 2nd wave was unavoidable excuse me avoidable because the virus was spreading more slowly than it did in the spring. it's the oldest film festival in the world the venice film festival and for its 77th edition it's the 1st to brave new

territory as a physical event in the cove of $1000.00 era there are strict rules for social distancing spare sleep populated theaters and a tad less glitz and glamor than usual but the important thing is the show must go on. the 1st weekend of the venice film festival usually main stars on the red carpet for top 1st and film premiere and so it is this year with strict hygiene measures in place but there are also positive changes fate of 18 films in competition from female directors not quite parity but a new record on sunday mr moggs by italian director susannah knew chiarelli had its premiere. the film tells the story of eleanor marx a committed socialist and feminist and the daughter of karl marx she was one of the 1st activists to speak about the exploitation of women and the situation within

families. it's also on the weekend of the premiere of the world to come by norwegian director mona fastball. sorry half elm is set in the 1850s on the u.s. east coast. to farmers' wives fall in love with each other and start something they don't even have a vocabulary for instance if you have to ask a lesbian affair. stones or what the fortune they see. in the leading role vanessa kirby who has 2 films in competition she's already being celebrated as the face of this year's festival.

in pieces of a woman by director cornell and so kirby plays a woman who loses her child. it's to zoom around to where we are. now it's always does or did it was a choice my daughter interesting charming intelligent modest modest. now we are joined by scott roxboro who is in venice watching the movies for us he's also prepared to face the elements there so scott tell us pieces of a woman getting a lot of attention what do you think of it you know i was blown away by this movie very very powerful it's really a wrong a look at the trauma that can result from the loss of a child not just for the mother but in this case for the entire family particularly with this family involved because they are unable to really discuss the issue of

the acting you know in this film is excellent across the board but i was really blown away by vanessa kirby playing playing the mother an astounding really relevant tori performance from her and she's really my pick for the best actress award here in venice and it's just one example of an increase in female perspectives that we are seeing at this particular festival so tell us a little bit more about what you've seen. yeah there are a record number of female film directors presenting their movies here in venice this year and what i've been really impressed by is just the range of films of subject matter of genres it really goes the spans the entire spectrum from historical romance like the world to come all the way to modern day political thrillers like the german movie that's going to be screening here later this week and to morrow the entire world in this film we follow a a young woman who joins the far left activist group and usually drawn into

a world of political extremism so a very very topical story but what i've been so impressed by is that the women the female directors here in venice are being restricted in any way they're really telling exactly the stories that they want to tell and doing it in exactly the way that they want to that's the way i can see scott tell us today another very remarkable film will also make its world from there it's called tor no it's been shot over the course of 3 years between syria iraq kurdistan levanon what more can you tell us about it. yes a documentary from the italian director. who a couple of years ago won the berlin film festival with another documentary fire at sea that film was about syrian refugees trying to escape across the mediterranean to come to europe here. goes and follows the stories of the people who stayed home looking at people trying to survive in the war zones of the middle east and what i

really love about rossi is he really goes deep and he takes his time he spends years with his subjects to really get to know them and what i think this film promises is a much deeper and more human look at the refugee crisis than we could get from from hundreds of television news stories scott roxborough at the venice film festival with everything that we have to look forward to thank you. well look big van beethoven has been celebrating his 250 and averse to 250th anniversary this year all amid the kovac 19 pandemic so a few improvisations have been necessary when it comes to the festivities which were planned to celebrate germany's most famous composer they were able to go ahead for example the berlin state opera in the case of points.

another step towards the return of musical life in early stage opera. under the pats on of daniel barenboim. pittsburgh sevens $250.00 of perth to this year so no surprise that beethoven is on the program rushed out also celebrating a birthday its own $450.00 s. store soloist and sophie is delighted to be back on stage you have to feel. so much that i can't wait to share this great music again that records are all well and good streaming is quite nice because sitting in peru you can be part of berlin but the live experience being the lie that nothing beats that. state or performance in on your high notes of the berlin summer a free concert. tickets have been stepped up but it looks poorly attended carona

means attendance has been cut from the usual 40000 just 2000 socially just dance concert goers but it just starts. open and is in times of coronas the only way to communicate with more than 200 listeners i don't think anyone really understands why social distancing is not an issue. demonstrations but when it comes to concerts people are so very exact almost painfully fussy 48. daniel barenboim has been at the forefront of attempts to bring life music back to berlin piece that the state opera for almost 30 years and is of course an mar of beethoven whether the composer is in bombastic or in romantic mood. this is the melancholy lyrical beethoven it's not the explosive one nor the

extremely virtue as a want this is very intimate chamber music actually but with an orchestra. the evening ends with the 9th symphony one of the most famous works in the classical music repertoire. to join sung by a choir after saif distance. searching this hymns of freedom a community is dedicated to help those in the front line of the coronavirus pandemic doctors nurses shop workers and teachers were also given priority access to the free tickets are special and much appreciated thank you.

you're watching news a quick reminder of our top story a bell overseen border official says the protest leader mario kolesnik call that has been detained while attempting to cross into ukraine ukraine's interior minister has said on facebook that kolesnik. obama was resisting a forced change parties. i'm sarah kelly in berlin coming up next it is closer.

to. systemic exploitation in germany a trip to the nation's biggest meat processing company to make cheap labor cost lobbyist contracts but not much more from jamie the practice will be banned to meet industry but other industries will be able to continue regardless. of its contract

workers come. next on g.w. . the law. did beethoven justice. dee dee dee doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. it is it is a dud a $60.00. no my g.p. the true king of rock n roll. so many rubber bands of stolen beethoven. of course the subconscious always one thing is clear but the van beethoven is horribly popular.

and the icy assured destruction i feel sure. but how would the world sound without the biggest composer of all time i can't even begin to imagine a world class horn player singer willis on a musical journey of discovery. world without beethoven starts september 16th on w. producing more faster and for less money that's how turn us became germany's biggest meat processing company and how clemens turned us became a billionaire. but in june 1500 contract workers at the companies afraid of beaten volk facility caught coronavirus most came from eastern europe and lived in cramped

shared apartments like thieves. because the insane many people live in such a small space that might be the one telling that to 10 people who has a. contract workers get less money and fewer rights and not just in the meat industry. german labor minister who because high are now wants to change things will ban contract work and temporary work in the core activities. of the meat industry of the group the pandemic called attention to contract worker exploitation in germany. the town of failed near fate of eating pork at the end of june thousands of people from eastern europe are essentially under house arrest guarded by police in their work at the turning a slaughterhouse has been suspended. around 7000 employees are in quarantine. a few kilometers away a relief operation is underway fate of even book residents have made donations for the workers one of the organizers is an approach me that for over 70 years she's

been fighting for the rights of chinese workers now being this much more than we ever expected it happened at very short notice our idea is to give cab packages in solidarity said the way to see that this anger isn't directed at them but it another visitor to the film going on. over 1000 packages have been collected containing food toiletries and even toys. maina georgieva and standard mammie hayloft distribute donations and failed for many chinese workers live in shared apartments. in a loft in georgieva give support to migrant workers from eastern europe but. they translate for us here not. one bowl garion says he's been a meat cutter for turn us for 18 months. we're going to offer you in for example if a veterinarian marks any spots on the pig that are not suitable for consumption but one of his jobs is to cut them off. the man is employed by

a subcontractor he gets the minimum wage 9 year olds $35.00 an hour and he hasn't received a paycheck for months he lives here in an 80 square meter apartments with 8 others next door we meet some men and women from polish them the men are contract workers for the turn yes and also live here and collective accommodations. how many people live here we ask 8 o 9 s 3 room apartment we want to know more about the turn is workers living conditions we say will give them a camera for 20 minutes so they can take some pictures of their place one of the men refuses to do it. the other one takes our camera and goes off to take some pictures. they're all with you but after a few moments he comes back another man appears behind him and he doesn't seem to like the contract worker talking to us. the worker is told to give the camera back

. we receive we ask who the man s. . it is it that the boss knows for sure yes yes and. he sends the workers back into the house would he ordered them to leave rather than the 5th over it's a shame that happened. i need to avoid because some of them wanted to talk to us and to tell us what was happening to them. i hope there are no bad consequences for them now and for the. workers behind bence's guarded by police. how did it come to this. in june 2020 there was a corona virus outbreak attorney and innovative beaten book germany's largest slaughterhouse these pictures are from before the pandemic. in the ventilation system is said to be to blame for the mass infections as well as insufficient

physical distancing between employees. one of the workers talked about his experiences in a cell phone video. as long as you felt healthy no one worried that you kept working. they only cared about the money. they didn't care if we died or not. it's likely the employees spread the virus from the workplace into their homes many live with 3 to 4 people in a single room so the outbreak grew. more than 6000 chinese workers were tested more than 1500 were positive. locals were also being tested. in june the district went into lockdown again then turned his working conditions became a focus of global attention from. a small village in the south

of romania. alberto gogu lives in this house with his family he literally fled from a raid a beaten book in mid june. as a contract worker attorney has the experience of the corona virus outbreak he says physical distancing at work was impossible. even and i can't teen it was too crowded dockery if it was he'd be 1st in mind we were told to distance ourselves but that was impossible otherwise we'd have to be standing up and. alberto says that when the 1st workers got sick he and his colleagues had to work much more. he was doing up to 12 hours a day on the production line even when he felt sick himself. because i told the boss i'm not feeling well i have to see a doctor she said you're not going anywhere. alberto was afraid

of catching coronavirus so he went back to romania in mid june. he spent the last 12 years doing contract work in germany but after his experiences in the last few months he says he's had enough. of the. thousands of people like alberto go who work at turning us even though the company doesn't actually employ them. here's how the system of contract work and temporary work functions usually companies have a core workforce if there's more to do it's short notice temporary workers can be hired. they become part of the company for a limited time temporary work is rare in the meat industry what's common is contract work. this is when a company hires sub contractors to carry out a specific job like cutting up animal carcasses the subcontractor sends its workers

to do the job the original company pays for the work to be done but doesn't take responsibility for the personnel who do it they don't belong to the company. to turn a site of a to vidhan both works with around 25 sub contractors who mostly source their workers from eastern europe. of a total of $16500.00 employees only half are employed by turn yes the other half are contract workers. that's the system being a bunch is fighting against when she heard about the poor working and living conditions a turn yes she decided to act. in 2013 she and others found. in a group to help those affected by exploitation of employment. she shows us articles about her work. as early as 2014 the group was pointing out contract workers often alarming living conditions. without the plan of the building with the top and use

labels to share what we see they'd be a bad and even that might be a bunk bed so many people live in such a small space there might be one toilet for 10 people. or shows us a cell phone video she made in a flat shared by turn u.s. workers. living rooms are filled with beds $3.00 to $4.00 people sleep in one room . the bathroom is completely rundown. today many say they knew nothing about the situation. but to enter fellow activists have been criticizing these conditions for 7 years in 2015 and they took their concerns to the highest level. zeugma then economy minister and vice chancellor visited that night. he took notes as he heard about the situation.

into the sea and because he was so interested we felt sure that now something would change when he left our house week she adds we said now something will happen. she could hardly believe what happened next. clements tanya's took gabriele on a guided tour of his meat processing plant in front of the cameras it was a p.r. coup for the businessman the vice chancellor was full of praise despite knowing about the problems at tenuous later he wrote on facebook it's good that turn yes he sets positive standards and industry that also has a chair a bad apples. 5 years on 6 briefly work. as a consultant for 10000 euros a month and turn us with all his contacts in the political world is one of germany's richest people with an estimated private fortune of up to 2000000000

euros enough to employ a host of contract workers whose poor living and working conditions have been known for years and even former german vice chancellor. not every part of the meat industry relies on contract workers there are still around 13000 so-called craft butchers in germany. runs 5 of them in. his family business employs around 70 people. how many of your personnel are contract workers. none of them. so they wouldn't be here if i put them on a work contract and temporary workers. temporary workers either a lot of them have been with me for over 10 or 15 years. jobs from a supermarket might cost 6 year as a kilo charge is double that it's not only because of higher wages large

slaughterhouses have lower costs and factory farmed pigs are cheaper. it's advertised as regional pork that's all very well but look the certification of all is one that's industrial pig farming where only the lowest requirements of animal welfare are filled. as president of the german torturers association says small but yours are at a disadvantage for example a government certified veterinary examination of a pig costs a small business up to $24.00 euros businesses that slaughter several 1000 animals a day pay less according to regional peace scales and they don't and you get the big industrial places. the price is at most $150.00 to $2.00 euro. in addition 'd small butchers pay higher fees for disposing slaughterhouse waste and spend more on electricity because of renewable energy levies norman isn't trying to match the

industrial slaughterhouse prices but he does want more support from politicians one and we don't want special treatment just equal treatment. giant slaughterhouses aren't just a threat to smaller competitors but often to their own workers to focus on is the chairman of the charity coffee toss in the district of good he's witnessed how the turn his company went from being a simple butcher store to germany's largest slaughterhouse and meat processor he says clemens turnus made his fortune at the expense of workers. this is not too late to help or to news makes most of the profit of course there's no question that they've exploited the poverty gap for professional gain. to news is they also profit because if there are blatant violations it's always the subcontractors fault as always keeps its hands clean of this. bugging yogen has been advising tanya's

contract workers and their families since 2016. he and his colleagues have held more than 10000 consultations he knows the methods used to keep monthly wages low. and from our fit on the technically the minimum wage is what's on the pay slip but then there might be $150.00 or $300.00 euros deducted for accommodation or for cleaning materials or shoes whatever they can deduct or they increase the rent when people are sick that type of thing there isn't much left over from the minimum wage if you do. most of the several 1000 contract workers a turn yes far from for parts of eastern europe they speak hardly any german. they are brought to the country and put into cramped shared a comedy. asians this also has wider effects on the region is. this business model means that more and more poor people with little education come to the region and it's some point society is no longer able to cope with it

definitely threaten social cohesion. we asked chinese holding comment on the living and working conditions of contract workers in a written response the company didn't go into any detail but he did say it aims to gradually change working conditions plans to directly employ workers in the areas of slaughtering cutting and packaging by the beginning of 2021. year that led to the current situation was a concerted political push for the labor market flexibility. that was a key part of social democrat chancellor gerhard schroeder's so-called agenda 2010 . development is there fear ladies and gentlemen we're going to have to cut back on state benefits demand personal responsibility and ask more from each individual.

agenda 2010 ushered in contract work temporary work and so-called many jobs at the university of applied sciences and professor stefan examines the causes a precarious employment he says his labor reforms also known as the hearts reforms weekend workers' rights that's the outs because it's the. environment divide to get to what the hearts laws brought with them was enormous deregulation of protector labor market provision. they enable temporary work and in my view they made it easier to abuse something like contract. or. since the hearts reforms employers in many industries have used all legal means to keep wages low and. off it's high even though contract work was really designed to address seasonal demands for extra labor. the problem in many industries is that the core business activity is now permanently

carried out by contractors. and we've seen it in the meat industry and. we also see it in logistics but above all in the construction sector. there the general work has been done by contract workers for years it has nothing to do with periods of peak demand. it's in the. contract work has many advantages for employers if workers stay home because of illness vacation or pregnancy it doesn't cost the employer a cent contract workers also have no voice within the company. and i would give all 3 of these enormous gigawatt young bush contract work releases the employer from all the obligations they normally have to their employees. maybe by workers through a subcontractor the way they buy screws or other goods when this we can call the costs our personnel costs their material costs on time that's the cost. of the turn

a scandal brought yet another shock to the political establishment pushing lawmakers to ensure that workers from abroad were paid fairly. germany's upper house and the bond is hot voted on a bill to guarantee that workers from other e.u. countries would get the same pay as german colleagues an effort to prevent so-called social dumping. of. buddhist talk lawmaker beata minigame has been fighting against precarious employment in the meat and agricultural industries for years if. demanding that contract work and temporary work be prohibitive when it comes to a business is cooler activity in this example companies have to take responsibility themselves under. we think it's very important that safeguards is strengthened and that this one single safeguard mechanism for wages working hours occupational health and safety health protections and accommodation. again and again there have

been legislative attempts to protect workers from social dumping and abuses of the contract work system. we asked germany's labor ministry for an interview about the issue several times without success so instead we approached labor minister who backed his hisle after the bone just hot session. we plan on a list of almost 20 legislative initiatives intended to stop precarious employment relationships in recent years almost all were either rejected or languished in a desk drawer. promises so small why can't the government do anything about precarious employment in germany for. is this because it's the state's job to do something but in our system it's above all the job of stakeholders like unions and employers and there's the problem our system of social partnership has a road in recent years if you are in fewer employers or an employer's association and in many sectors far too few employees are in union are still to put the blame

at the door of unions and employers doesn't quite wash yet we push the minister on why there's been little action from politicians it was no effect on dozens watching for funding by lobbyists you only have to see that in these cases either the lobbyists have watered down laws or if there were strong regulations circumvented them with trickily written contracts involving sub sub contractors that's a good yes i'm determined to clean up the industry through digital recording of working hours by emphasizing the responsibility of states to adhere to binding inspection quotas with work safety authorities and not just in the meat industry and by having clear and enforced rules regarding employee accommodation. because the strictest rules are of no use if they're not enforced and we're going to ban contract work and temporary work on the core activities of the meat industry but for beacon with that who battles hisle would be taking on some of the biggest companies in europe big in part because they keep wages low through contract work.

we asked the employers association for food and consumption for comment they declined an interview directing our questions to a meat industry employers group the s.p. a they gave us this written response regarding the planned abolition of contract work and temporary work in the meat industry. contract work is an important instrument of flexibility without flexibility the meat industry would go abroad and more than 50 percent of jobs will be threatened. the s.p.s. argument is one that employers often make. but others. strongly disagree. professor myself posher works for the german institute for economic research. on it goes from its nice to far in germany is not in danger of losing this industry if there are fewer atypical employment arrangements. that's

a myth with no basis in fact. the fact is that german companies are very competitive internationally not because of atypical employment but because of their highly productive employees. this is a typical employment includes temporary work and contract work but also so-called many jobs fixed term contracts and part time work almost a 3rd of german workers have this kind of employment that figure has risen sharply since the 1990 s. we want and it's not just the meat industry and what happens in many other sectors including logistics. the dortmund logistics company or deals g.e. is a subsidiary of discount retail giant teddy it supplies teddy stores throughout europe. and in october 2019 we reported on how workers here were striking for better wages. says the head of the employee organization at the time philip keynes

fought for years for a collective agreement. must occur are no negotiations i employ or is refusing to talk to a union according to the employee organization of the company had about 640 employees and 2019 of these about 350 were said to be contract workers. only 290 women and men were on permanent staff. a year on we meet philip keynes again he's now union secretary at the trade union verity we ask what's changed at the d.o.j. . as was hard it's worse today than it was before we now have twice as many contract workers of permanent staff as. dishonest do you mean a good deal and teddy are really pushing to use contract work to oust their own employees for doing. the reduction of permanent staff is in full swing in your. any industries. what employers call flexible ization means insecurity and lower pay

for employees. as definitive it's not just about the meat industry contracts are a problem there used to be entrepreneurial risk the entrepreneur had the money but they also had the risk if there was no work to do that's fallen completely by the wayside today they say they need people to be on call when there is work but they should just disappear when it's done just so long as they don't have to pay anyone to stand around. the german institute for economic research as myself is also critical of the fact that companies often exploit contract work and other such employment arrangements. see that option but just politics. it can't be the goal of german economic policy to participate in undercutting competition in europe to push wages even lower and from ever more atypical employment. after all we know that the goal of companies has to be to be productive and to offer better products

. and we can see that atypical employment tends to damage that kind of competitiveness but. since the 1990 s. germany's low wage sector has grown by 60 percent mainly thanks to chancellor schroeder as agenda 2010. in a recent study for the better as month foundation the german institute for economic research found that around $7700000.00 germans had low wage jobs. more than a 5th of employees work for less than 60 percent of the median incomes and less than 11 year olds 40 an hour. that's a lot of people by international standards and 16 feet. in almost all neighboring countries and there are fewer workers in the low wage sector than in germany. and denmark for example workers in the meat industry are much better paid.

at the danish food trade union and we meet jim. he used to work as a meat cutter himself. we asked him how many contract workers there are in the danish meat industry. because they have to be employed according to collective agreement they have to be hired by the employer and they have to work for the agreed wage. at the big danish. all employees are directly employed by the company. wages are also much higher. german meat cutters generally only get the statutory minimum wage of 9 years 35 an hour. receive a standard wage of $27.00 euro on average almost 3 times as much i mean surely no one can afford danish meat at those rates then maybe 2 or 3 percent of the cost of a cutlet will be labor costs it might be 2 percent in germany and 3 percent in

denmark no more so the wage competition is only to make profit you can make more profit in germany think you can a denmark. says danish meat companies also try to push down wages but here almost all employees are in the union that unit makes the workforce strong when companies don't want to strike collective agreements. we can ask for help and support from the other unions then no electrician will come to that company no truck driver will drive in or out and so on. sooner or later if we can persuade them to enter into a collective agreement. even turning us itself faces those conditions in denmark. we also have 2 news here in denmark as to slaughter houses one in blue and one in tested are their workers contract workers. not all their employees employed by.

they get the same as everyone else in the industry. in denmark shows that it's possible to run a business successfully and fairly. profit making through precarious employment is something germ. he has perfected above all other european countries the practice should end in 2021 at least in the meat industry as for other industries this legal exploitation is likely to continue.

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is d w news live from berlin trying to flee or told to leave conflicting reports over what happened to and bella who was seen protest leader at the ukrainian border on tuesday morning bella who says she was trying to cross over but in ukraine officials says she resisted deportation we'll go live to minsk. coming up.