Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
COP 21 PARIS

CLIMATE

Eastern Europeans hired for Paris climate meet

Reportedly low paid eastern Europeans have been called in to work on the COP 21 climate summit in Paris, even though local workers were told they would be prioritized in the hiring procedure.

Published: 5 November 2015 08:59 CET
Eastern Europeans hired for Paris climate meet
Workers go about their jobs on in Le Bourget, outside Paris, at the construction site of the building which will host the Climate Change Conference 2015. Photo: AFP
The Paris COP 21 climate summit, which runs from November 30th to December 11th, seemed like a golden opportunity for work in the département of Seine-Saint-Denis, just outside of Paris.
 
Indeed, there are around 3,000 people hired to be working on the meet, and the organizers noted that “people living in the region will get priority treatment when it comes to any employment generated by the event”.
 
But revelations emerged on Thursday that at least 200 workers had been subcontracted from eastern Europe to help out.
 
While there is nothing illegal about hiring workers from around Europe instead of those in France, they must be paid at least at the minimum wage, which wasn't the case at the COP 21.
 
A Slovakian worker said for a 12-hour shift he had only been paid €70 ($76), reported the France TV Info channel.
 
The man had been hired by GL Events, which came under fire in the past for hiring a dozen Romanians to work a university in La Rochelle.
 
A spokesperson from the company confirmed that six workers were indeed from Slovenia, but added that the GL Events had hired local workers too. 
 
Guests at the summit — the biggest international meet in France since the Universal Declaration of Human rights was drawn up in 1948 — will include US President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping among more than 80 world leaders. 
 
 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CLIMATE

Central and southern Italy brace for storms and heavy snow

Storms and snowfall are forecast across much of central and southern Italy over the next few days, according to weather reports.

Published: 29 November 2021 15:13 CET
Snow is forecast in the hills of much of central and southern Italy.
Snow is forecast in the hills of much of central and southern Italy. Photo: Miguel MEDINA / AFP

Italy’s Civil Protection Department on Monday issued ‘orange’ alerts for bad weather along Campania’s Tyrrhenian coastline and the western part of Calabria, while Sicily, Basilicata, Lazio, Molise, Umbria, Abruzzo, central-western Sardinia, and the remaining areas of Campania and Calabria are under a lower-level ‘yellow’ weather warning.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts is warning Italy’s central-southern regions to prepare for a blast of polar air from the Arctic Circle that will bring heavy snowfall, rain and storms, reports national weather forecaster Il Meteo.

The village of Grotte di Castro in the province of Viterbo, two hours’ drive north of Rome, mountainous parts of Sardinia, and much of the province of Campobasso in the central-eastern region of Molise were already blanketed in snow on Monday morning.

The department is responsible for predicting, preventing and managing emergency events across the country, and uses a green, yellow, orange and red graded colour coding system for weather safety reports.

An orange alert signifies a heavy rainfall, landslide and flood risk, while a yellow alert warns of localised heavy and potentially dangerous rainfall.

The current meteorological conditions mean that snow is expected to reach unusually low altitudes of around 450-500 metres, with flakes already falling thickly on parts of the southern-central Apennines mountain range at 500-700 metres altitude.

The hills of Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, Lazio, Sardinia, Campania, Calabria and Basilicata are likely to see heavy snow around the 500m mark, while areas at an altitude of 1000m or higher will see between 50-60 cm of fresh snow.

Affected parts of the country could see 50-60cm of snowfall.

Affected parts of the country could see 50-60cm of snowfall. Photo: Vincenzo PINTO /AFP

In areas where the snow is unlikely to reach, heavy rains and thunderstorms are anticipated, with rain forecast throughout Sardinia, Campania, Calabria and Lazio, reports Il Meteo.

Strong winds are forecast over the whole country, with the island regions of Sicily and Sardinia facing windspeeds of over 100km/hour and the risk of storm surges, according to the national newspaper La Repubblica.

READ ALSO: Climate crisis: The Italian cities worst affected by flooding and heatwaves

The north of the country, meanwhile, will see sun but low temperatures of below 0°C at night in many areas, including across much of the Po Valley.

While conditions are expected to stabilise on Tuesday, cold currents from Northern Europe are forecast to trigger another wave of bad weather on Wednesday and Thursday, with Sardinia and Italy’s western coastline again at risk of storms and heavy rainfall that will move up towards Lombardy, Emilia Romagna and Veneto in the north.

SHOW COMMENTS