Slaving over the Wok: Chinese Restaurants Accused of Human Trafficking

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There are around 10,000 Asian restaurants in Germany, and the demand for cheap cooks is correspondingly large. As many as 4,000 Chinese people work in Germany's Asian restaurants. And every year, between 700 and 800 more Chinese cooks are issued work permits, which must be approved by the German Federal Labor Office's International Placement Offices (ZAV).

To encourage cultural diversity in Germany, an agreement with China allows selected specialty cooks to work in Germany for up to four years. In order to qualify, they must have abilities German cooks don't.

Officials at ZAV check whether the strict terms of the agreement have been fulfilled before issuing a work permit. The cooks must present credentials and demonstrate an ability to speak German or English. The employer must pay the travel costs to Germany and back; and working hours, pay and vacation entitlement have to correspond to the respective pay rate generally observed in the industry.

Around two dozen so-called educational institutions in China send specialty cooks to Germany and they are regulated by the state-run China International Contractors Association. But German authorities fear that many of these institutions aren't what they claim to be.

Last year the German Foreign Ministry temporarily barred many of these Chinese institutions from the visa process because cooks' credentials had clearly been forged. Meanwhile, ZAV officials are also aware that the paperwork they process doesn't always correspond to the reality in the kitchen. "We follow up on evidence of violations," said ZAV's Beate Raabe.

Virtually No Rights for Workers

Such abuse starts with the cooks often having to pay much higher commissions than agreed upon by the two countries. In addition, they have to pay their own travel costs and a secret supplementary contract leaves them with virtually no rights.

The cook, one of these contracts reads, should "work diligently, hard and perseveringly," "not gamble," and listen to "the boss' advice." The cook must also be clear about the fact that work "in German kitchens (requires) good physical strength," and that the employee is required not just to cook but also to "wash dishes, clean floors and stove hoods" and much more. Anyone unprepared for this work should refrain from signing in the first place, the contract states. In addition, the contract cannot be terminated.

The employer is obligated only to take care of work and residence permits and pay a salary, insurance and taxes. A €1,500 deposit is withheld from the first wages, and the employer determines working hours and when vacations can be taken. The contract also reads, however, that the employer will "not deliberately injure (the cook) physically or psychologically."

Finally, both employer and employee pledge "under no circumstances (to disclose) details about the content of the contract to third parties." The official employment contract, this second contract continues, is "only for use in the visa application," and has "no binding power."

Yang Wang* also signed two contracts, one for the authorities and another one that virtually made her a serf. Also from Jiangsu Province, she paid about €9,000 to two different agencies. In exchange, she received cooking courses that turned her from a simple cook into a certified specialist in just a few days time.

She flew to Hamburg, where her new boss picked her up at the airport. Work started the very next day. She toiled 11 to 13 hours a day and at the end of the month received €680 in cash -- far less than she had been promised.

Fighting Back

Bernhard Welke, 47, a lawyer in the town of Gentien in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, used to make his living primarily through traffic accidents, contract law and other civil disputes. But that changed two years ago, when he stumbled across a Chinese cook who told him about his suffering.

Welke now represents more than 60 Chinese clients who feel they've been deceived and exploited by their bosses and the employment agencies, and he carries out labor-related lawsuits throughout Germany. The cases, however, sometimes end up superfluous when immigration authorities deport the cooks who are trying to defend themselves. When these employees lose their jobs, they are quickly stripped of their work and residence permits as well. And that, in fact, is the easiest solution for the restaurant owners, who then don't have to worry about any further trouble.

In Welke's experience, many restaurant owners make a point of establishing good contacts with the relevant authorities, winning themselves preferential treatment when it comes to filling out the residency papers that have to be issued after the cooks arrive and before they can begin work.

According to Welke, one Chinese restaurant owner in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate, for example, even gloated about his close acquaintance with a woman working for the immigration authorities. Welke says he sometimes gets the impression officials would rather cozy up to restaurant owners than concern themselves with the problems cooks face.

That was true in Aijun G.'s case in Speyer as well. A contractual disclaimer often lets employers get away scot-free. According to this clause, entitlement to the payment of overtime hours expires if not claimed within a certain period. The burden of proof lies with the employee.

The cooks Welke represents have had to work at least six days a week, clocking up as much as 65 to 94 hours of labor. In most cases, they earn no more than €600 a month, which is handed to them in cash. Very often no payroll accounting is even done. They had almost no contact to the outside world. If they wanted to use a mobile phone, they had to go through their bosses, who could thus monitor employees' calls. Anyone who defied the regime risked facing what happened in one case in the western German city of Osnabrück -- a visit from a gang of thugs.

Almost all of the cooks had their passports taken away immediately after their arrival. According to Welke's information, the passports are then sometimes used by other people to enter into casinos or to transfer money to China. Investigators also believe people from China may be smuggled into the European Union using these passports.

For Chinese restaurants in Germany, these kitchen slaves are a lucrative business. If a cook is entitled to gross earnings of €1,900 a month for a 39-hour work week, but instead works a 78-hour week for €600, then the restaurant owner saves €3,200 a month.

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• Part 1: Chinese Restaurants Accused of Human Trafficking
• Part 2: 180 Restaurants Raided