customs service
Suspicion of undeclared work – raid in eleven federal states
Customs searched 22 apartments and business premises on suspicion of undeclared work. Photo: picture alliance / Christophe Gateau/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
An entrepreneur is said to have hired out foreign workers to German clients without permission. Customs is now on duty with more than 500 officials.
Because of the suspicion of undeclared work, the customs in eleven federal states has moved to searches. More than 500 officials were on duty on Tuesday, the Koblenz customs office announced on Friday.
A Serbian entrepreneur is suspected of having hired out foreign workers to German clients without permission. The workers come from Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland and Croatia. 20 German companies in the metalworking industry are accused of using the borrowed workers as if they were their own employees.
Customs officers searched 22 apartments and business premises in North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Thuringia, Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony-Anhalt, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. “Extensive evidence” was confiscated, including hourly records, contracts and accounts. These would now be evaluated, it said.