During the previous days we fought collectively against the decision of the company Boehringer to lay off a colleague who is a young mother, who is contracted through ADECCO in BI, by not renewing her contract.

During the meeting we had with the Administration of the company, they pleaded “errors and unreliability” of the colleague and tried to gild the pill suggesting a 3month extension of the contract.

So, while being in the first spots of productivity and profitability, they choose with the above to worsen the conditions of our life and health.

Really, if the company believes truly in protecting motherhood, as they say, why they do not implement what is provided for the company employees? Why they don’t protect also the contracted colleague for 18 months?

We can extract solid conclusions and clarify the below:

• The employers in our sector also take advantage of the antiworker laws and demand more and cannot foul us that we all are one family. These days they put in everyday agenda the demands of Big Industrialists that the governments are very willing to implement by preparing new barbaric antiworker hits. Their focus is the hit to the fixed working hours and the new anti-trade union law that mainly will constitute a law that prosecutes trade union action.
• The maneuver of the company was done under the pressure of the workers and our trade union.
• The diversity in work forms make workers a prey of the employers’ choice and their governments are ensuring this.
• For the “errors and unreliability” of the workers, responsible is the company that intensify the work and press for the goals that they impose.
• They present the spectacular results of our work as theirs, we get the “bravos” and they get the bonuses and the millions that fill their “pockets”.

We will not override the choice of our coworker to accept the 3-month extension, but we know well, under which circumstances the workers take these decisions. Also, this choice does not stop our struggle and demands from the company.

We continue to fight for:

• The return of our coworker in the company
• The equal treatment without terms and conditions for all workers.
• All contractors that cover standard and ongoing needs or are more than 3 years in the company, to be hired as company employees by the end of the year. We demand permanent and stable work for everyone.
• No consolidation and generalization of remote working, that is temporally applied due to COVID-19, that erases the limits between working and non working hours and hit the heart of our working rights.
• The raises and bonuses should follow the financial results of the company and in any case should be higher than last year’s.
• Proper and comprehensive training of workers, for their safety at work.

All the above along with the rest of the issues that workers in the company face, along with all the problems that all workers in pharmaceuticals and in general have, will be in our everyday struggle with every form that we will choose along with the our trade union and our federation. In the next period we will evaluate and formulate our attitude for the promotion of our claims.

Trade union of Workers in Boehringer Ingelheim

Trade Union of Workers in Pharmaceuticals and Cosmetics of Athens

Federation of Workers in Pharmaceuticals in Greece