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Injured workers on German sites "left for dead by roadside" - Site deaths outrage
00:00 21 May 1997
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About 150 foreign construction workers seriously injured on sites
in Germany were dumped by the side of roads and left for dead last
year.
Figures from the German construction union IG-BAU show that 153 foreign workers were abandoned and left to die during the first 10 months of 1996 by unscrupulous employers seeking to avoid prosecution.
There are between 50,000 and 70,000 Britons working in Germany making them particularly vulnerable to such abuse. An outraged George Henderson of the T&G Union described it as "the work of gangsters, fraudsters and racketeers."
Henderson has raised the issue with the German Embassy in London and was told that they would act when he provided the evidence. Henderson told CJ that he has written to the new Labour Government and hopes that, with the prominence now being given to human rights issues, it will take up this abuse with EU colleagues.
News of the appalling death toll and treatment of foreign workers on German sites comes as a British woman is about to enter a German court room to press charges against three men charged with manslaughter and endangering the life of her husband Len Stacey.
The three men charged are David Carter, a director of UK firm David Carter Construction Management and Richard Unterhuber and Thomas Naumann of German site developer ABN Wohn.
Len Stacey died on site after falling from scaffolding in Leipzig in 1994. Over the past three years Mrs Stacey has conducted an almost single-handed campaign to seek justice for her husband.
Mrs Stacey believes the problem lies at public prosecutor level in Germany. "In the case of my husband's death the police did their job and investigated properly but the prosecutor failed to proceed," she told CJ.
It is only due to the pressure she has exerted over the past two years that Denise Stacey believes the German authorities are now beginning to move.
Mrs Stacey believes the inspectorate do not fulfill a preventative role but merely act after fatalities rubber stamping the disasters.
The case will be a test case throughout Europe.
Figures from the German construction union IG-BAU show that 153 foreign workers were abandoned and left to die during the first 10 months of 1996 by unscrupulous employers seeking to avoid prosecution.
There are between 50,000 and 70,000 Britons working in Germany making them particularly vulnerable to such abuse. An outraged George Henderson of the T&G Union described it as "the work of gangsters, fraudsters and racketeers."
Henderson has raised the issue with the German Embassy in London and was told that they would act when he provided the evidence. Henderson told CJ that he has written to the new Labour Government and hopes that, with the prominence now being given to human rights issues, it will take up this abuse with EU colleagues.
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News of the appalling death toll and treatment of foreign workers on German sites comes as a British woman is about to enter a German court room to press charges against three men charged with manslaughter and endangering the life of her husband Len Stacey.
The three men charged are David Carter, a director of UK firm David Carter Construction Management and Richard Unterhuber and Thomas Naumann of German site developer ABN Wohn.
Len Stacey died on site after falling from scaffolding in Leipzig in 1994. Over the past three years Mrs Stacey has conducted an almost single-handed campaign to seek justice for her husband.
Mrs Stacey believes the problem lies at public prosecutor level in Germany. "In the case of my husband's death the police did their job and investigated properly but the prosecutor failed to proceed," she told CJ.
It is only due to the pressure she has exerted over the past two years that Denise Stacey believes the German authorities are now beginning to move.
Mrs Stacey believes the inspectorate do not fulfill a preventative role but merely act after fatalities rubber stamping the disasters.
The case will be a test case throughout Europe.
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