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When I told him I had come to Greece to learn, he just laughed out loud”.Ī few miles away, at the Aegean Melathron Hotel in Kallithea, Chalkidiki, Vlad from Romania (his full details at our disposal) was also excited for this opportunity he got through the Erasmus Programme at his university, Alexandru Ioan Cuza of Iași. I had to fight with my manager for one day off. I was standing in the kitchen for 8-9 hours a day, with a wall in front of me, next to the noisy washing machine and the hot stove, polishing cutlery. “ I had the worst three months of my life. It wasn’t long before Agnieszka realised that things were not going to be as she imagined. My motivation to choose Greece and this internship was to learn, gain work experience, meet new people and have a nice time in a sunny place.” “The university provided me with health insurance and I signed a contract for three months.
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I checked their website and it looked like a dream,” she explains. “My university sent me an email about Job Trust. She started working at Istion Club Hotel & Spa, in Halkidiki on the 27th of June 2019.
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So how exactly has this elaborate scheme that results in wage dumping and exploitation of foreign workers, flew under the radar of Greek, Bulgarian and European authorities?įor Agnieszka Plonkiewicz, 24, the job offer came through her university, WSB in Poznań, Poland.
TRAPPED IN PARADISE SERIES
For the needs of this report we travelled across Greece and Bulgaria, collaborated with investigative journalists in Bulgaria and Romania, examined numerous legal documents, monitored a series of online platforms and social media pages, and interviewed dozens of people who came to work in Greece over the past summers. Our investigation brings to light a pattern of systemic violations of labour laws in the Greek hotel industry, bringing these to the attention of Greek labor inspectors and posing fundamental questions for the future of a sector so crucial to the economy. However, the deregulation of the labour market and the need for a cheaper and more competitive workforce has also become fertile ground for anyone eager to rig the system for a larger profit margin. Through this operation, hundreds of young people have ended up as overworked, under-declared and underpaid foreign workers in Greek holiday resorts over the past years, while hotels have avoided heavier taxes and social security contributions.įollowing the economic recession and the EU-IMF imposed fiscal austerity of the past years, Greece’s tourism industry has been considered to be the country’s “lifejacket”, creating new jobs and generating growing revenues. During a months-long investigation our team was able to uncover a complex scheme involving a recruiting agency based in Greece and letterbox companies in Bulgaria that enlist young employees or apprentices from other EU or third countries to work at top Greek hotels, by manipulating vague EU regulations on “posted workers”. He couldn’t possibly imagine what would follow the next weeks and how his dream summer job would turn into a nightmare.Īdam is one of the hundreds of foreigners that worked in Greek hotels during the summer of 2019. “I went there to experience the lifestyle, I just really wanted a change in my life and not to regret that I never took the chance”,’ says Adam Judd, 32, as he remembers how he felt, crossing the gate of Porto Elounda Golf & Spa Resort, one of the most prestigious 5-star luxury resorts in Greece. He had left behind the cloudy, dull weather of Staffordshire in the Midlands in order to pursue a summer job in a hotel in Greece. During the 1,5 hour ride he kept dreaming of the next months. He carried his luggage and got into a taxi to Elounda. He was tired from the flight from Manchester to Heraklion but his face broke into a smile, once he caught a glimpse of the shimmering sea. It was the 25th of April and as the sun rose higher, the temperature climbed to 26☌. Adam turned his face away from the bright light of the sun, as he was getting off the airplane on the tarmac of Heraklion airport in Crete.