Construction Workers for Latvia

More and more skilled German laborers are working on Latvian building sites. The construction industry is booming in this recent European Union member, especially in the capital Riga, where new office towers, residential complexes and homes are springing up. German companies are profiting from the boom, among them the Nordplan company from Kiel, which is constructing two office buildings. As subcontractors on the building site, numerous German firms are sending their own workers to Riga. Roofers, masons, and electricians are in short supply on the Latvian job market. The German companies remain competitive in part because of their higher productivity and standards, which gives them an edge over the cheaper local firms. Karl Harenbrock was there to see how work was progressing. --------------------------------------------------------------- This Latvian electrical wall unit doesn't match German construction norms. The actual cabinet is too small and its insulation doesn't meet German standards. Bernd Lömker encounters problems like this every day. He is currently working on site in the Latvian capital Riga. Around half the skilled workers here come from Germany. These workers are assembling façade sections for a fixed price. They came here on a cheap flight. "These days it doesn't make much difference whether I drive from Osnabrück to Munich or fly to Riga via Hamburg. It costs almost the same amount and the German workers' hourly wage is the same in Germany and in Riga", Lömker says. These workers are Latvians. Six of them doing the same work as three German colleagues. The German companies' advantage is they are more effectiv,e and that lands them a lot of contracts. The Latvian builders achieve less due to a disastrous system of organisation on the job. Bernd Lömker: "They are still split up into so-called brigades. Each one is given its own working area and a list of things to do each morning. They complete the job on hand and if they finish early they sometimes don't know what to do next. That's a serious problem we don't have in Germany because we're probably more flexible." There is a lot of conctruction work going on in Riga, with new shopping centers, houses and office blocks being built throughout the city. In the years before EU membership brought prosperity to Latvia, many skilled construction workers went abroad. This man stayed. Artis Jeseris: "I think it's okay that skilled foreign workers are working here, I'm not envious. On the contrary, we can learn a lot from them about work safety and organisation." Latvian, Russian,German, English...a number of different languages are spoken here. Jacob Buchmüller comes from the German city of Erfurt. He's responsible for insulation. Like many of his fellow Germans, he sleeps in a container while he is on the site. He shares a room with a colleague. No-one plans to stay here for long: "I'm a bit older, but my co-workers are young and have 2 or three children. They want their father home with them", Buchmüller says. This office building near the center of Riga costs some 20 million euros. Jan Brink has met up with potential tenants . Two thirds of the office space has already been let, and the faster it's finished, the sooner the money will start to flow. Jan Brink: "We pay close attention to quality, because that means we as a German company stand out from the local market. Of course, if construction work is done faster, that gives us an economic advantage because we can start renting out space earlier and have to pay less in bridging loans." Giving German workers jobs at a fixed price is paying off. The building will be completed on time. Time for Bernd Lömker to take a breather. He worked on sites in the Netherlands and Belgium before coming to Riga. He and his wife live near Osnabrück..he misses his home. Bernd Lömker: "When I finish work on a Saturday evening and I have Sunday off then I start to think about the folks back home and how the family's doing ...and that becomes a problem." Bernd Lömker and a colleague head for the old city center, where they come across the Bremen Town musicians ...Bremen and Riga have had close connections ever since the era of the Hanseatic League. Bernd Lömker is by no means the first German craftsmen to have worked in Latvia.

DW-World | May 13, 2008

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