Ireland, Migration, Hospitality industry, Domestic workers, Europe, Work & careers, World news Business | The Guardian
We struggle to secure payslips or a schedule – and in an 11-hour shift I barely have time for a bathroom breakWho keeps Europe’s wealthy west going? Underpaid, invisible migrants from its east – and I went undercover to find themThere is no one at reception when I arrive at the hotel in a small town about 50km from Dublin, so I go to the bar and, as instructed, ask for the duty manager. “Miša, do you know where James is?” the young waiter calls to a passing colleague – in Slovak.I had been interviewed online for the hotel cleaning job I applied for through an agency back in my home country, the Czech Republic. Did I mind that the hotel was in a secluded location with nothing to do in the evening, they’d asked me in the interview. I’d said no, that I like solitude. Now I am being shown around the hotel and the kitchen, where I meet the cook and two other guys – all of them Slovaks. Just as I was surrounded by Poles while on the farm in Germany, here I feel I could be in Slovakia. The cook, taking a break, tells me that it is his last day. I ask if he is leaving because of the low pay. He breathes in slowly and says that he’s leaving because of the stress. Continue reading…
We struggle to secure payslips or a schedule – and in an 11-hour shift I barely have time for a bathroom break
There is no one at reception when I arrive at the hotel in a small town about 50km from Dublin, so I go to the bar and, as instructed, ask for the duty manager. “Miša, do you know where James is?” the young waiter calls to a passing colleague – in Slovak.
I had been interviewed online for the hotel cleaning job I applied for through an agency back in my home country, the Czech Republic. Did I mind that the hotel was in a secluded location with nothing to do in the evening, they’d asked me in the interview. I’d said no, that I like solitude. Now I am being shown around the hotel and the kitchen, where I meet the cook and two other guys – all of them Slovaks. Just as I was surrounded by Poles while on the farm in Germany, here I feel I could be in Slovakia. The cook, taking a break, tells me that it is his last day. I ask if he is leaving because of the low pay. He breathes in slowly and says that he’s leaving because of the stress.
