Subcontracted labour as strikebreakers? Not with us! | Strike information for those employed as subcontracted labour Subcontracted labour as strikebreakers? Not with us! Strike information for those employed as subcontracted labour »Although employers would prefer otherwise: no subcontracted labour employee is obligated to work as a strikebreaker.« Claus-Harald Güster, Vice Chairman of the NGG During a strike, employers often try to maintain operations entirely or in part through the deploy- ment of subcontracted labour employees. As a subcontracted labour employee, you don’t have to fulfil the wishes of the contractor. e contractor is legally prohibited from deploy- ing subcontracted labour employees. In fact, you are obligated by law to refuse to provide services. “The contractor may not allow subcontracted employees to work when its operations are directly affected by a labour dispute. Clause 1 does not apply when the contractor ensures that subcon- tracted employees will not assume any duties previously carried out by employees who 1. are involved in a labour dispute or 2. have in turn assumed the duties of employees who are involved in a labour dispute. The subcontracted employee is not obligated to to assume duties on behalf of a contractor to the extent that these are directly impacted by a labour dispute. In the event of a labour dispute, the con- tractor is to remind the subcontracted employee of his/her right to refuse to provide work services”. § 11 Par. 5 Temporary Employment Act (AÜG) No strikebreaking – ensured in the collective agreement Subcontracted employees who work on the basis of a collective agreement of the DGB tariff community with the employer associations iGZ and/or BAP, can also cite these collec- tive agreements and decline strikebreaking work or refuse to work in a business currently on strike. In the industry-wide collective agreements with the employer associations BAP and iGZ, it is stipulated that subcontracted employees may not be de- ployed in strike-hit businesses. The contracting company is not permitted to circumvent the prohibition of strike em- ployment. In particular, it is not permitted to abrogate collective agreements for the day of the strike and to agree on equal pay / equal treatment only for these days. The prohibition of strike work applies to every subcontracted labour employee. The subcon- tracted labour employees who were already deployed with the company prior to commence- ment of the strike also may not work. Very important: those who choose to make use of their right to refuse to provide services must inform the employer of this. englisch - EN