To use the 'Polish' car wash?

[LennyCrabsticks]

I went there today and paid £15 for half a dozen Eastern European people to clean my car inside and out including all the upholstery and nitty gritty bits, the whole thing took less than twenty minutes.

It just seems a bit, I don't know, exploitative? They are there seven days a week in all weathers, dozens of them, all migrant workers.

Is there something dodgy about the set up? I'll avoid it if it's shady (I'm thinking of forced labour etc). Or is it an enterprise worth supporting with my custom?

Does anyone know?

(I do hope I'm overthinking this as my car is lovely and clean and it was v cheap...)

I feel bad now, it didn't occur to me that they were being exploited.
I do buy them a bag of doughnuts whilst they're doing it.
Will tip cash in future.

I don't know exactly what went on MiddleAge but there was a raid at a house opposite us and all the occupants worked in the supermarket car wash.
Apparently the neighbours reported their concerns after repeatedly finding the men taking food out of the bins.

We have one too called 'The Ultimate Hand Job'

It's unlikely that they are illegal immigrants as there is currently a fine of £20,000 for every person found to be employed with out the correct permits/permission to work.

My husband has just opened a car wash - all above board! He and his employees are Eastern European who are entitled to claim benefits etc but don't and want to work/earn/provide and so work bloody hard.

[raises hand]

Albania is in Southern Europe, not Eastern Europe. Hungary is in Central Europe, not East Europe. Lithuania is a Baltic, not East European country.

I'm East European myself and it drives me bonkers how 'Eastern Europe' is often interpreted as one Polish/Romanian/Lithuanian/ lump.

I can also assure the pp who said that the education system in Poland and Hungary are good and hence the car washer can't be from there, that the rest of Central/Eastern/Southern Europe also produces educated people.

And Albanian mafia, Carrie, well every country has a mafia so why single these guys out?

Oh, I had to fight so many stereotypes about East Europeans back in the 1990s (that we are all criminals, weapons smugglers, money launderers and came from countries that don't have roads).

Glad to see all those myths busted.

Seriously though, I don't know anything about the car wash thing but might your local council be able to say if they are properly licensed etc?

I was friendly with a person who had overstayed their 'student' visa and was desperately trying to make a living. From the things they told me it seems as though anyone who is here illegally OR struggles with the language may be exploited by unscrupulous business owners.
The person I knew (and I knew them well), talked to me mostly about petrol stations and off licenses/corner shops using people like that who were desperate. These people are paid very little.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if the men and women working these car wash jobs were also being taken advantage of.
I don't use these hand car wash type places for this reason, just in case. I'd hate to support that sort of thing.
Although that being said, I'm positive these black market jobs are everywhere and it's probably hard to avoid coming into contact with these types of businesses. It just all seems so unfair.

Have logged on to reply to this, and will name change again after this thread as I would not normally put so much personal info.
I am married to an Albanian he also owns a car wash, this is fully compliant with all environmental laws, VAT registered, workers registered for PAYE and NI, fully compliant with all employment etc laws.
We also know of 10 other owners personal friends who are completely compliant with the above.
None are money laundering rackets, all had to work fucking hard to get where they are and carry on the business.
Are there problems within the industry, yes, but these are rare these days and not the normal.

It is often normal in Albania to sleep more than one to a room, when we went my husbands family only had the one room to sleep in so 3 brothers and one sister slept in the same room, his family preferred to keep the other spare rooms as a room to entertain in the day, where they slept was just that a room to sleep.
Its quite normal for Albanians to do the same in this for the reasons above and as they are usually paying rent they prefer to keep this money than pay so much for a room to sleep.

Every country has a mafia, Albanians are used to growing up in a very corrupt country (this is improving) so police and other officials don't assist with problems, they are therefore very used to sorting out any problems themselves.
I know of one Albanian whose girlfriend is a prostitute, he is shunned by the Albanian community in our large Town.

Also remember any thing you have heard in the news could also be made up/ exaggerated.

Oh and the only person that works 7 days a week is my husband, however his workers would do if he would let then, quite freely from choice!

Looks like to many people have watched Taken and taken it as a documentary.

However when you go to a car wash and the prices are a few quid more than the one down the road, have a look at the set up, drains, chemicals used etc and you will have your answer- it costs money to run a legitimate business, the one down the road might not be.

We take both our cars to 'Miri's Carwash' and they're fantastic. it's only £6 for a basic wash/wax/dry and they do the door sills and all windows. They told us they're mostly Lithuanians (6 in the team) We always give them £10, it's well worth it. At Christmas I gave them a big paper bag full of home-made mince pies and some cans of beer. They seem impervious to the cold and wet and work like ants. I take my hat off to them. There are lots of these car washes in this area, and I don't reckon anyone much uses those automatic ones any more.

Nor will it all be above board - as pp said, it is a front for money laundering funds from drugs, prostitution and people trafficking. Read up on the Albanian mafia (just Google it) and you'll see why it's not properly challenged by councils and the police
Don't talk shite, and don't talk as fact for things you do not know about.

Awesomesupertasty. The Albanian mafia is one of the strongest mafia in the world. They control a lot of the drug trafficking and prostitution in the UK and other parts of Europe and the world. In parts of Italy they have overthrown the Italian mafia.

Read up about it if you're interested.

IamTitanium I never said all car washes were mechanisms for money laundering and apologies if you were offended by my post. I am happy to hear how well you are doing.

The mafia need to be challenged, that is what I'm saying, drug trafficking and prostitution need to be challenged.

We have one locally and they are great. I use all polish/czech building teams and they are fantastic.

We have car wash gangs men at our local Sainsbury's (Africans or West Indians) and at Asda (Middle Eastern or Hungarians). I use the Asda one because they have access to piped cold water whereas those at Sainsbury's carry the same bucket around to do several cars. Sometimes, I want to ask to see their passports.

Asda crowd charges £5 for outside and £5 for inside including vacuum cleaning so they have electricity as well inside a container type of 'building'. So I use them because the work is good and takes a short time.

Some of them might well be nice people because a couple of years ago, when there was snow and ice on the approach to Asda, I slipped and fell. Two of them ran over to help me up.

simbacatlivesagain, can I just ask you if you actually know anything about the education system in countries like Romania or Hungary? Or are you assuming?
Sweeping assumptions are making up for your obvious lack of knowledge, rather dissapointingly. Please get your facts right.

carrie, I really think that's an exaggeration, of course the Albanian mafia exists (actually it's a lot of different crime groups from Albania and Kosovo, often working with Macedonians, Greeks, Montenegrins etc). But to say that 'Albanian mafia' is the be all and end all of the uk crime scene, really sounds like a Guy Ritchie film.

happyagain what do you mean 'Africans or West Indians' and 'Middle Eastern or Hungarian'? These areas of the world are nothing to do with each other. Why are you tempted to ask for their passports? Hungary is in the EU!

I'm East European myself and it drives me bonkers how 'Eastern Europe' is often interpreted as one Polish/Romanian/Lithuanian/ lump.

I think rather than location its lumped together like the west is or asia....its more from communism, the eastern block.

so if they're 'educated' can they not work in car washes?

anyway it would be good to see our local long term unemployed being more enterprising.

elf yes, I can see that being the case. Though you don't really hear people saying 'he's Western European, German or French or British or something.' :D

We have 'the best hand job in town'

The one I use is Romanian and they charge just £4 for a wash, wax and dry. Always feel guilty and give them a bit more because they do a brilliant job and dh's car is quite big.

happyagain You are tempted to ask for their passports?
Really?
I guess you wouldn't object to them asking to see your driving licence then?

The only shocking thing about my local car wash is how they've not put their prices up in ten years.

I am a bit at some of the posts on here

at the assumption that all money laundering businesses are run by the Albanian mafia.

Agree completely with iamtitanium. DH is Albanian (kosovar) and I actually find it quite offensive that people seem to think if they are uneducated they must be illegally working for an Albanian car wash!

simbacatlivesagain, can I just ask you if you actually know anything about the education system in countries like Romania or Hungary? Or are you assuming?

Yes I do. I have visited the education system in countries around the world both pre and post 1990. Many of my family are Russian and Polish (although with shifting borders they have been in a fair few countries over the past 120 years). I spent time studying behind the 'iron curtain' in the 1980s.

I fully support economic migration . Many migrants come from countries with stronger educational outcomes that the UK (higher % of graduates- strong performance in international league tables).

I used Romania and Hungary as many economic migrants in low paid jobs are Roma (I should possibly have said that the car wash workers may well be Roma rather than saying Hungarian and Romanian) - and economically and socially they have not always had the same opportunities regardless of the country they lived in. If you want to look at the historic Roma access to services and education in other countries just google.

In 2013 it was estimated that 90,000-120,000 Roma people live in the Uk.

I work with migrant families in both a professional and voluntary capacity- so do know about the daily challenges!

simbacatlivesagain, can I just ask you if you actually know anything about the education system in countries like Romania or Hungary? Or are you assuming?
Sweeping assumptions are making up for your obvious lack of knowledge, rather dissapointingly. Please get your facts right.

To add. Education In Poland is compulsary to age 18. It is not in the Uk, Hungary or Romania.

In 2014, the Pearson/Economist Intelligence Unit rated Polish education as 4th best in Europe and 10th best in the world. That was above Hungary, Romania and the Czech republic.

Please get your facts right.