Mariia and Mykola, a married couple who fled Ukraine as refugees, took jobs at a warehouse in the Czech town of Ústí nad Labem — and ended up at the centre of a story about “hidden” job-placement middlemen. For minimum wage, they spent 12-hour shifts picking orders for the online grocery store Košík.cz, and after falling ill and being fired, were then billed 25,000 crowns in compensation.
A tempting ad that turned into a warehouse job
Three months after arriving in Czechia, the couple's free temporary housing ran out, and they urgently needed work to pay rent. In Ukrainian social media groups they found an offer that looked entirely official: an employment contract with social and health insurance contributions included. After calling the number given, the couple showed up a few days later at a warehouse in Ústí nad Labem that, from the outside, looked like an ordinary Makro store-warehouse. There they signed a contract with a company called KonstantaCZ for the minimum wage of 22,400 crowns — and only afterwards learned that their job was actually preparing orders for the online grocery store Košík.cz.
Night shifts and a ban on gloves
The couple lasted only a few weeks at the warehouse. They mostly worked nights, in 12-hour shifts that often ran over — sometimes by half an hour, sometimes by several hours — until every order had been picked. Supervisors constantly pushed staff to run rather than walk. Workplace injuries happened regularly, but no doctor was ever called. Unlike Makro's own staff, who had hats and gloves for working in the cold-storage rooms, the couple were explicitly forbidden from using them, which often caused them health problems.
A sudden dismissal and a demand for money
The job at the warehouse ended abruptly and dramatically: first an illness, then immediate termination of the contract — followed by the employer's demand that they pay 25,000 crowns for alleged damages. The employer claimed the couple had missed four shifts without a valid reason. Mariia and Mykola dispute this: two of those days weren't even scheduled as work shifts, and for the rest they had a doctor's sick note.
Who is actually responsible
The couple decided not to give up and turned to non-profit organisations for help; these found them a lawyer and explained that what had happened went beyond the bounds of Czech labour law. The couple carefully documented all the negotiations and correspondence. According to experts who study labour market abuses, such a tangled chain of intermediary companies is a typical tactic: it makes it hard to work out who is hiring whom, who pays whom, and who is responsible for what — and not only for the workers themselves, but for labour inspectors too. The Makro chain said it leases part of its premises to Košík.cz and bears no responsibility for working conditions there; the online store said the warehouse's logistics are handled by outside contractors; and KonstantaCZ's director, Konstantin Sergeyevich Bokovoy, said the couple had in fact been working for his firm and denied the accusations of “hidden” intermediation.
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