European worker treated badly meeting premature end (4)
I believe the answer is:
slav
'european' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'worker treated badly meeting premature end' is the wordplay.
'worker treated badly' becomes 'slave'.
'meeting premature end' means to remove the last letter (the word finishes earlier than normal).
'slave' with its last letter removed is 'SLAV'.
(Other definitions for slav that I've seen before include "Native of eastern Europe, perhaps" , "East European - Asian Russian" , "Native of eastern Europe or northwestern Asia" , "European perhaps" , "One of the European people" .)