Worst Employer of the Year

Tonight was the announcement of the outcome of the second annual Worst Employer of the Year Contest organized by ZSP. The initial announcement was made at a concert of the group which wrote the hymn of the contest.


And the worst employer of the year was.........


Alpine Bud (Alpine Bau), general contractor of the National Stadium in Warsaw and the A1 highway in Silesia. At the National Stadium Alpine uses many subcontractors who don't always pay workers and there even were wildcat strikes there last year. In December, 2 people were killed working on the stadium. Workers explained that there were gross violation of safety procedures and the person responsible from Alpine tried to cover it up, falsifying documents.

(See the English section of www.pracownik.net.pl for more details.) 


On the A1 highway, workers were forced to work up to 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. Highway workers started to call the job "a work camp". There were many complaints, including firings with no notice and no reason.  Workers were also forced to sign annexes to their contracts which lowered their salaries. People who didn't sign were fired. The problems with Alpine got so bad that they were kicked off the construction project. One of the last straws was that the company wanted to force workers to build a bridge on the highway that engineers said would be unsafe.


More about this and information on the runners-up soon to follow.


The results will appear tomorrow in the major newspapers and an "award" will be given to the company.