Performers of port services: From stand-by bonuses to 33 cents per tonne of unloaded coffee

The stories of those performing port services at Luka Koper through other companies

30. avgust 2016 ob 13.00 • Ljubljana - MMC RTV SLO

Performers of port services: from stand-by bonuses to 33 cents per tonne of unloaded coffee. Foto: BoBo

Port operator Luka Koper hires workers from 35 different companies to perform their port services. Many of those companies do business exclusively with the Port of Koper. The port stresses that such business practices can also be found at other port operators and that it cannot supervise the honesty of its contractor companies. However in practice, the work of those performing port services reveals numerous violations of worker regulations and peculiar norms - one example is that a worker is to receive a payment of 33 cents per tonne of unloaded coffee.

"The boss usually tells me one day or even just a few hours before my shift, when I have to come to work," says a worker employed in one of the companies which generates the majority of its income by performing port services. And that is also how it was on the day we talked to the worker. He received a phone call telling him that he should be at work in a couple of hours. The job he does consists of three shifts. The worker we talked to had already experienced working 250 or even more than 300 hours a month. In the most active month he only had around 5 hours of free time in between shifts.
If he does not answer the call of his "boss" or turns down work because of other plans for a certain afternoon, the "boss" penalizes him by offering less work in the future. The worker gets paid by the "boss" according to the hours worked. Despite the fact that the worker is fully employed, he can thus receive less salary. "It’s a common practice elsewhere as well," says Goran Zrnić from the Counselling Office for Migrants, which deals with similar cases on a daily basis.