Eight subcontractors from the world of construction and three giants of the sector, Eiffage, Spie Batignolles and GCC, are indicted before the industrial tribunal this Thursday. Ten workers are attacking them for having concealed their work on the Paris Olympic Games sites, as well as their “responsibility” for subcontracting on these sites.
The ten files will be brought together on Thursday from 1 p.m. before a common “judgment office”, according to the registry of the Bobigny industrial tribunal. Vinci, once cited, was finally exonerated. These workers, who have since been regularized, denounce their “exploitation” on construction sites, including that of the Olympic village where they worked without an employment contract or pay slip. In addition to salary arrears and the recovery of social contributions, they hope to obtain the conviction of the construction giants for “concealed work”, explains Richard Bloch, the union defender of the CGT who must plead the cases to the industrial tribunal.
Towards a dismissal?
“The principals are responsible for what happens on their sites,” even if it is small structures that recruit the workers, he warns. “The construction giants outsource all their first-level workforce, which opens the door to these companies which themselves exploit undocumented immigrants,” says Richard Bloch, whose union supported these people in their process. regularization.
The Bobigny public prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation more than a year ago, in particular for “hidden work” and “employment of undocumented foreigners in an organized gang” after checks made it possible to identify several irregular workers on a Olympic construction site. “Our group is undertaking a large number of actions to ensure that all employees present on all of its sites are in compliance”, was commented at Spie Batignolles, while GCC and Eiffage did not expressed.
Before the hearing, Richard Bloch worries, several subcontractors have already gone into liquidation, which raises the specter of a dismissal, while the justice system finds traces of the managers. “The prosecutor did not alert the commercial courts to prevent these placements in liquidation. It is possible to imagine that there is an interest in the procedure taking place after the Olympics (July 26-August 11, Editor’s note) rather than before,” observes the union defender.