Berliner call center agents not paid for 6 months.

The berliner call center “Consatis” has been refusing to pay its workers for the last 6 months. Employees are worried: their contracts state if they are not paid within the next 6 months they may not be paid at all.

Consatis owner, Klaus König hit the headlines in 2001, when his company “Modalis” closed down owing tens of thousands of marks to its employees.

Who are Consatis?
Consatis is a call center situated on the Tempelhofer Ufer in Kreuzberg, employing mainly English speaking foreign workers, many of which can not speak German and have only recently moved to this country.

Founded in 2001, Consatis employees receive a new contract every 2-3 months depending on the length of the project they are part of and the descretion of the manager. Their main contractor is the Siemens AG.

History repeating itself?
Consatis owner, Klaus König hit the headlines in 2001, when his company “Modalis” closed down owing tens of thousands of marks to its employees. The simularities between the two companies are distressing Consatis employees.

Not only do contracts at Consatis exclude the payment of social insurance, sickness insurance, sick pay and holiday pay (Sozialversicherung, Krankenversicherung und “Lohn im Krankheitsfall”), they can be terminated on a daily basis.

Importantly, contracts also include a clause denying the employees the right to payment if the company has not paid them within a period of 12 months - so for many (ex)employees, time is simply running out.

We, a growing number of ex- and current Consatis employees are fed up with the empty promises made by the call center manager. Many of us have been forced to take on other jobs or can not pay our rent, others have left Germany altogether, abandoning the hope of ever being paid.

For more information contact: consatis-don’ t-pay@web.de