Several undocumented workers who worked on construction sites for the 2024 Olympic Games have taken construction companies to court, Franceinfo revealed on Tuesday. Regularized last year, they denounce their exploitation and want to obtain “recognition” of their work.
Published on: 06/20/2023 – 12:10
Ten undocumented workers have decided to attack their employers before the industrial tribunal of Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), reveals Tuesday June 20 France info. These workers point to the fact of having worked on the construction sites of the future Olympic Games 2024 – in particular the Olympic village, located in the department – without an employment contract, without a pay slip, without paid leave or payment of overtime.
These workers, mostly from Mali, are demanding accountability from their former direct employers, eight subcontracting companies, as well as from the four giants of the construction sector, namely Vinci, Eiffage, Spie Batignolles and GCC, the principals sites on which they worked. They particularly wish to obtain the “recognition” of their work and the payment of salary arrears.
Read on InfoMigrants On the site of the Paris Olympics, exploited undocumented workers hope for a job
The CGT is following the file
Living in France for several years, they obtained a first victory in the wake of a labor inspection in March 2022: their regularization.
They are now asking for “the recognition of an employment contract, requalified as a full-time permanent contract”, explained to AFP the trade unionist Richard Bloch, confirming information from franceinfo.
Union defender at the CGT, he had accompanied these workers in their process of regularization.
In the file filed on March 31, the union and the workers also demand the payment of “arrears” of unpaid wages, the recognition of a “dismissal without real and serious cause”, and that “the responsibility of the masters of work” in the use of this irregular work.
Especially since, by the time the case is heard at the industrial tribunal in October, according to the CGT, the subcontractors could simply evaporate into thin air.
“What costs construction giants the most is not paying these salaries, it’s their tarnished brand image,” said Richard Bloch.
With AFP
