Tiago Ansenio, 26, Lisbon Portugal

I work for a company which gets packages ready for a courier company.

Most of the people are on short term contracts, and the drivers are outsourced.
I work at night – there are maybe 20 people on the night shift.

Some of the temporary workers have a contract of one week. After a week they don’t know if they’re going to get another week, another month. They don’t know if they have a job from one week to the other.

We earn a basic wage – the min wage 485 euro. On top of that we get a bonus for productivity - this is on a monthly basis. Our bonus can be half of our wage – but if you are sick or on leave you only get the min wage the basic salary.

My friends went to look for a job after university. He was 3 or 4 months without a job – so he went to a recruitment company – as he was filling out the forms the lady advised him don’t put university – as they will think you are too qualified and they won’t call you for an interview.

He studied marketing – and he got a job nothing to do with marketing – now the boss of the company – is paying his wages late He has a car payments to make but he doesn’t get paid on time.

There is not a lot of hope. We cut out all the little things. We don’t got out to like we used to. We stay in at home and drink coffee.

In Portugal we say that it is the politicians who are responsible. The Government needs to invest in more jobs.

I would ask Madame Lagarde, how can you live on 485 Euro ?