Job Talent responds to abuses: “Abolish the system of secondment”
The discovery of suspected widespread human trafficking at a construction site of the chemical company Borealis highlights the vulnerabilities in the European free movement of labor. Identifying those responsible is extremely difficult. Job Talent responded to the interview in De Tijd. Read the full article below.
The contractors at the Borealis site in the Antwerp port maintain that they are not involved in the alleged exploitation of 55 workers. Belgian authorities are convinced otherwise and are investigating whether there is also legal human trafficking.
Borealis puts the blame on the French-Italian company Irem-Ponticelli. In response, Irem-Ponticelli claims to have done everything by the book. “We want to clarify that 24 Bangladeshis and 3 Filipinos are employed by Irem Belgium as part of the employment of non-EU citizens within European rules. Everything has been reported to the Belgian government, and the wages are paid correctly.”
The company does not provide further details. But there are leads to Polish and Hungarian companies. Belgian investigators must contact their foreign counterparts to determine whether these were legitimate employment contracts with real companies or fictitious arrangements.
Four major streams of non-EU workers
Most detached workers from outside the EU in Belgium come through Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, and Lithuania. Due to historical and geographical ties, specific nationalities from each of these countries come to work in Belgium. From Poland, it mainly consists of Ukrainians, although this has decreased due to the war, and Belarusians. These nationalities also come from Lithuania. Slovenia mainly sends people from former Yugoslavia. Portugal sends Brazilians and residents from its former African colonies. The social inspection services, aiming for 2,000 checks per year, focus on these streams. 600 checks specifically target non-EU citizens as this phenomenon is on the rise. Of these 600 checks, 200 are carried out on Portuguese-Brazilian detachments.
“Additionally, 41 Filipinos and 10 Bangladeshis are employed by an interim office that has a contract with us,” says Irem-Ponticelli. “That company received compensation from us well above the Belgian minimum wage. We are examining whether it complied with Belgian rules as agreed upon with us. If not, we will hold the office accountable. No communication has come from the Belgian government to us.”
European Detachment
The case focuses on the much-discussed European detachment. This allows workers and self-employed individuals to work anywhere in the EU as long as they have a residence permit and work permit in another member state. They work according to the labor and wage conditions of the country where they work but under the social security of the country where they are registered.
The aim was to make it easy for people to work anywhere without having to enter a different social system each time. Soon, labor migration from east to west and south emerged because companies from those countries pay much lower contributions, and wages here are much higher.
“The system is increasingly moving away from its original goal,” says Eddy Van Herreweghe, director of social dumping and fraud networks at the social security inspection of the RSZ. “Most detachments are kosher. But we also see a business model of registering in the cheapest country, even if there is no direct link to that member state, to earn a lot by avoiding social security rules. The question is also whether the labor and wage conditions of the country of employment are always followed. The system often ends up with both the country of employment and the country of dispatch being short-changed due to fraud.”
Greenhouse Horticulture
The constructions are becoming more elaborate. A group of Romanians was put on the payroll of a shipbuilding company in Lithuania by a Dutch firm, even though they never worked there. In the Belgian-Dutch border area, they were housed in a holiday village from where they were transported by vans to work in greenhouses in both countries.
In 2020, 212,000 workers were detached in our country, according to figures from researcher Dries Lens (UAntwerpen), who wrote a PhD on labor migration and detachment. A new phenomenon is the increasing number of workers from outside the European Union coming to work in the EU through detachment. In 2020, it accounted for one in six workers detached in our country.
Much of the explanation is the lack of European hands in a heated labor market. “The circle of origin countries is expanding because labor shortages are also occurring in Eastern Europe. Companies there, driven by relaxed labor rules, are increasingly looking further. People from outside the EU are also ending up in our regions,” says Lens.
Extent of Fraud Unknown
The extent of the fraud is unknown. Each year, there are a maximum of a few hundred cases reported to the police, inspection services, and the judiciary, according to figures from the Federal Migration Center Myria. But this is in no way an indication of the true extent of the problem. Moreover, in a large number of cases, it leads to dismissal, according to Myria.
“The circuits run through an increasingly larger tangle of member states and constructions, making it longer and more complex to verify and prove everything,” says social inspector Eddy Van Herreweghe. “It is deliberately made as opaque as possible, precisely to make control impossible.”
It is no coincidence that the construction companies around the Borealis file are pointing fingers at each other. Due to previous misconduct, a system of chain responsibility has been set up between the companies involved. This should prevent one company from blaming subcontractors who disappear as quickly as they came. But despite these rules, it turns out to be a different story in practice.
Detachment fraud rarely leads to heavy prison sentences. This is also because governments prioritize recovering lost tax and social income and confiscating illegally acquired assets.
Concern about Filipino workers in bottleneck occupations
The investigation into possible human trafficking at the port construction site of chemical giant Borealis is ringing alarm bells in the sector. Companies that recruit Filipino labor through the legal circuit advocate for more control. Not all Filipino workers in Belgium are being exploited, says honorary consul of the Philippines Ronny De Blaere. He points to the legal circuit in which workers from outside the EU can exercise certain bottleneck professions in Belgium. “That works well, but the case at Borealis shows that there are still gaps in the system.”
The workers at the Borealis construction site who, according to the Antwerp labor auditor, may be victims of human trafficking, are of Filipino and Bengali descent. This raises concerns among other companies with Filipino workers. “I have already been contacted by concerned employers, while they are working completely legally.” Job Talent, one of the largest recruiters of Filipino labor in our country, is one of them. “A potential client asked if we were not involved in the case at the port,” says Luc Kenens, director of the Filipino project.
After the judiciary took action, the Filipino embassy asked whether Job Talent is open to accommodating the victims. “We are ready to offer them housing, work, and the necessary permits, just like we do for our other employees,” says co-founder David Vanhoegaerden. Job Talent mainly focuses on bottleneck occupations. Due to strict regulations, workers with a work and residence permit for a certain period are not cheaper. “We offer them as much salary as other employees and provide them with proper accommodation,” says Vanhoegaerden. “Our clients want to fill the shortages in the labor market.”
Employers who are desperate for workers are often deceived, says Vanhoegaerden. One of their clients has already been approached by a fraudulent organization offering Filipino labor at an unreasonably low rate. Job Talent advocates for more government control over permits and wages. “The system of detachment should be abolished. It leads to unfair competition in the sector,” says Vanhoegaerden.
© De Tijd – Read the article here.