Knoblauchsland or the Garlic Land: an important vegetable area near Nürnberg cannot live without seasonal workers during the time of harvest. 24 of these are Romanian. Four of them took courage after their contract finished and demanded their rights, which have been overlooked by their employer. They did not resort to a public scandal this time, but appealed to the rightful German authorities. The Germen border staff looked and found tat, beside getting a "hunger's salary" for long days of hard work, the Romanians were also subject to miserable housing conditions, limited hot water and guarantees for work shoes and fridge.

Taking the cab to the border

"It is often that employees, underpaid and misled money-wise, request the help of illegal labour financial control authorities (Finanzcontrolle Schwarzarbeit, a German border agency service), Nürnberg borders press spokeswoman Martina Stumpf told HotNews.ro.

This has been the case of the four Romanians who, after seeing their salary falling short of the promises after a season of harvesting, did not resort to the scandal press or to righting a wrong themselves, but took a can on July 15 and used the cab driver as interpreter for the border agency.

The Romanians complained about the lousy payment they got - about 3.60 euros per hour, despite an initially 5 euros/hour agreement. They also showed they have not been paid for all the hours they have worked. Plus, they said part of their income had bee retained and the buyers would refuse some of the vegetables if they worked slower, claiming an unsuitable product quality.

Misery in the dorms

The owner of the farm stated that the agreement saw a unique payment for 30 working hours a week. But he could not prove the number of hours the workers have done. But the workers took out notes indicated their workin