On an asparagus farm in eastern Germany, the large area earmarked for barracks-style housing is divided in two.

One half is reserved for European Union citizens, mostly seasonal workers from Romania, while the other half houses non-EU nationals. Their nationality varies from season to season. Before Russian invaded Ukraine in 2022, they were mainly Ukrainians. Later, a small group of Georgians came under a bilateral agreement between the German and Georgian governments. This year, hundreds of Uzbek students, all male, have been living in the shabby accommodation.

The occupants of this one barracks illustrates a more general trend: recruitment geography for seasonal work is extending further east. With its multinational workforce and poor working and living conditions, this farm is a microcosm of seasonal workers’ reality in Europe’s strongest economy.

Although they are part of the larger agricultural labour force, and contribute to keeping German agriculture afloat (around 1/3 of all workers in German agriculture are seasonal workers), their lives are more than precarious. Both EU and non-EU workers live and work in similar conditions. The fence separating the two dormitories on this asparagus farm isn’t like the partition between first class and coach on an airplane. It’s more an administrative convenience than anything else.

Farmers take advantage of seasonal workers’ need for accommodation to offset the cost of the minimum wage, yet there is little legal framework to prevent this

The accommodation is substandard: small rooms for two people, usually with old beds, and generally a table, fridge and electric cooker. There is no communal kitchen and only a few shared toilets and showers for hundreds of people. Some workers complain about insects. Others worry about water seeping into the rooms after heavy rain. And each person will have €12/day deducted from their last pay cheque as rent.

On other farms, seasonal workers in similar conditions pay up to €20/day and may share a room with five other people. For comparison, that is higher monthly rent than you would normally expect to pay in the German countryside. It is on a par with rents in the big cities of Munich or Berlin.

Rents are also increasing, often taking up to a third of a worker’s monthly wage. A Polish seasonal worker who returns to the farm every year said that: “The minimum wage has gone up, so it’s only logical that the cost of accommodation is going up too.” It is well known that farmers take advantage of seasonal workers’ dependence on the accommodation provided to offset the cost of the minimum wage. Yet, there is little legal framework to prevent this.

Precarious conditions and legal loopholes

Social composition and legal status differentiates EU from non-EU workers more than what they experience at work.

Romanians make up more than 80% of all seasonal workers in Germany. Often coming from economically weak regions and social backgrounds, they see the three-month seasonal work in Germany as an opportunity to earn more than they could in their home country. They often come as families. Some will speak three or more languages, others will struggle to read work-related documents even in their mother tongue.

Most of them work on the basis of ‘short-term employment’, a form of employment developed specifically for agriculture to ensure a constant flow of labour during the crucial spring and summer months. As a legal model, it’s only allowed for people who don’t regard seasonal work in Germany as their main source of income. But the reality is that the money earned in the spring and summer months often sustains workers for much of the year.

People in Germany on short-term employment do not pay social security contributions, which increases their take home pay. On the downside, they don’t have access to unemployment insurance or paid sick leave. They do not pay retirement contributions, which is why they are unlikely to have a pension to retire on even after many years of working in Germany.

Nor do they have independent health insurance. They are insured through their employers, and need their employer’s permission to go to the doctor. If the employer doesn’t consider it necessary, workers must generally do without medical help. Every season there are news reports of seasonal workers dying on farms.

The reality for seasonal workers is a constant oscillation between periods of immense overwork and extreme underwork

Meanwhile, more and more people are being recruited from outside the EU. Most are students recruited by specialised agencies in their home countries. They often pay several hundred euros in recruitment fees just to get the job, and many must take out debt to do it.

They usually come on a so-called “holiday job” basis. Most students are studying subjects far removed from agriculture, but are lured by the prospect of high German wages and traveling abroad. They are often shocked by what they find when they arrive. Confronted with the state of their accommodation and the reality of a 10-12 hour working day with no pay until the end of the season, many end their contracts within the first few weeks.

Wages are another subject of great discontent. Piecework is legal in Germany, but the minimum hourly wage should always be maintained. This legal requirement is often circumvented by not officially registering all the hours worked. This workaround maintains the minimum wage on paper, making it unlikely that state inspections will uncover violations, but ensures workers receive far less for their true hours worked.

On some farms, workers are forcibly given unpaid days off if they do not work fast enough to meet their daily picking targets. Other farms go further and send them home. The reality for seasonal workers is a constant oscillation between periods of immense overwork and extreme underwork.

If workers complain, the employer is legally able to dismiss them with one day’s notice. This is made possible by an exception in German law for “low-skilled”, temporary workers employed for less than three months. This means that, in the event of a conflict, a contract can be terminated immediately.

All this underscores the many layers of dependency that seasonal workers have vis-à-vis their employer. They are dependent on them not only economically, but also for their accommodation and often their legal status in Germany. A simple question about payment or working hours can potentially lead to homelessness and no legal status. So for most workers the only realistic course of action is to not ask.

Fair Farm Labour Initiative

Located on isolated farms and not speaking German, it is often difficult for seasonal workers to find help in extreme situations. This experience led to the creation of the Fair Farm Labour Initiative, which aims to improve the working conditions of seasonal workers.

The initiative is an alliance of legal advisory centres for migrant workers and the trade union IG BAU. Its advisors go out into the fields to ask seasonal workers about their working conditions and offer legal help in the workers’ first language.

Each season, the advisors reach many hundreds of seasonal workers. IG BAU also offers a special, one-year membership for seasonal workers in agriculture and construction, which is cheaper than regular membership and gives workers union representation from day one. For most seasonal workers, this is the first time they have joined a union.

But this is only the first step towards the proper solution. Many workers’ problems cannot be solved without better control over the recording of working hours and the payment of minimum wages, over the price and quality of accommodation, and over the availability of medical care and a safe working environment.

But given the logic of labour migration and the European agricultural labour market, such changes can only be guaranteed if they are granted to seasonal workers in German asparagus fields as well as to Moroccan women in Spanish greenhouses or Punjabi workers in Italian olive groves. Fair treatment for all, or there will be fair treatment for none. It’s long overdue.

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