Exploited Polish workers
hope for better employer
Polish workers say they were bribed with vodka and pizza to keep their mouths shut about their terrible working conditions in Norway, after public officials shut down two construction sites in Oslo run by their employer, Harald Langemyhr AS of Tønsberg.
 A number of Polish workers refused to be sent home despite their squalid working conditions. PHOTO: PER ANNAR HOLM As many as four Polish workers lived in this 10-square-meter container. PHOTO: ARASH A NEJAD |
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While the owner of the firm is off vacationing, his staff has been left to fend off serious charges brought by county and state occupational health and safety officials. The officials claim they've rarely if ever encountered such exploitation of construction workers in Norway before.
Approximately 70 Polish men had been stuffed into horrendous living quarters and often had 60-hour work weeks.
They were also being paid much less than the minimum wage in Norway, and charged NOK 2,500 (USD 500) per month for their squalid living quarters. Several of the men were living in containers and construction barracks, while others were sharing a dilapitated house with inadequate electricity and sanitation facilities.
Most of the Polish workers, around 55 of them, were sent back to Poland by bus on Friday after the conditions were revealed in newspaper Aftenposten and other Norwegian media..
The 16 who refused to leave were given vodka and pizza and asked to stay quiet and not talk to the press or the authorities about how they had been treated, they reportedly said.
According to the workers, they were offered a significant amount of money if they would go on TV and denounce the accusations made against their employer, Harald Langemyhr.
"The pizza was good and our thirst was quenched, but we can’t be bought to lie," said a spokesman for the Polish workers. Most have been reluctant to be quoted by name, after one of their bosses threatened they'd be blacklisted from working in Norway, where they come to earn higher wages than at home.
The remaining Polish workers hope to find a new employer in Norway.
Staff at Harald Langemyhr AS, a construction company involved in renovating schools and kindergartens in the Oslo area, have denied the workers were badly treated and claim all their papers were in order. The firm has been given a deadline of Wednesday, March 12, to submit documentation showing the company followed regulations.
If the documentation is not in order, the government will shut down all the construction sites the company operates.
The case has prompted some labour and public officials to say the working conditions were the worst they'd seen, that it was "immoral" and made them "ashamed to be Norwegians." It's especially embarrassing for city and county officials who had hired in Langemyhr, and are held more responsible than most that occupational health and safety rules are followed.
Per Annar Holm
Siri Gedde-Dahl
Marita E Valvik
Aftenposten English Web Desk
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