El Caballero – Hero with no Contract

Social Essay by Oana Maroti

A mechanic gentleman loses his life in the fires in Spain, after saving a senior Spanish citizen and freeing as many horses as he could from the farm.

He leaves a family behind.

At first, the news in Spanish presents a hero who saved a man and several horses from death, and it seems that the stud farm belonged to the victim. That a Romanian jumped in to save, I wasn't surprised, but that it was his stud farm, I doubted. Soon, other news appeared claiming that the victim worked at the stud farm, but he wasn't the owner. Others say that he was repairing the owner's car, so before he lost his life, Mr. Mircea was working.

However, he didn't have insurance, so he worked without a contract. As a result, the repatriation costs were left on the shoulders of his family, who were already struggling. In this case, the Romanian community lent a helping hand.

We work in inhumane conditions, either without a contract or with a dubious contract, which does not guarantee that the family will not be affected. We leave and work far away, as we are trying to help, but the contractual regulations between countries are not protecting the workers.

Attached to the wave of xenophobia that this gentleman-hero for Spain has triggered by saving lives, I believe more than ever that working conditions between countries must be renegotiated, to the core.

The condition of Romanians in Europe is a delicate issue. We are being negatively advertised from every position in the media, even if most of us work like fools, barely paid and without rights, surrounded by hatred.

All these adverse conditions must change. This means fair negotiation and educating the countries receiving workers, plus accessible legal support, so that action can be taken if the contractual details are not respected.

And I don´t know what your labor experience is, but until this moment, none of my contracts in different European countries were respected. The consequences of such unfair work dynamics are serious.