Hind (the employees asked that their last name not be used), 28, sorted used packaging from waste sorting centers in Ile-de-France every night from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. until her eighth month of pregnancy. Without papers, she did not benefit from any maternity leave: it was three months without pay. To seek compensation, she and twelve other undocumented employees operated by NTI, a subcontracting company of Veolia, Paprec, Suez and Urbaser between 2019 and 2022, filed a case before the Paris industrial tribunal on Wednesday June 12.
They are thus following in the footsteps of the eleven of their colleagues who denounced this abuse on August 28, 2023, by symbolically occupying the XVEO Veolia sorting center in Paris, with the support of the CGT. The world had then revealed the harmful practices of this subcontracting company, seeming to operate like a temp agency, since it was sending staff to supplement the teams of Suez, Veolia or Paprec. But in much lower working conditions and pay. A labor inspection investigation is still underway. And could lead to criminal prosecution.
“We were called to give us day-to-day missions. Sometimes I would work from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on one site, then move on to 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on another.”confides Hicham, 35 years old. “Our speeds were higher, the belts were faster and there was more waste on them”, testifies Hind, proof, according to her and her colleagues, that managers at the ordering companies were aware of their second-class status. What Veolia, Paprec and Suez firmly deny.
“No one ever checked our IDs. These people are taking advantage of the situation. It’s like we have no value, even though we’re doing double or triple the work.”deplores Youssef. “They are all accomplices. Their goal was just to get the job done.”, estimates Anes, who shows photos of a 20-centimeter bruise under his armpit after he fell from a stepladder. Work accidents were never reported. None have ever received safety training.
A solution for the first undocumented whistleblowers
Most worked without a contract, paid 60 euros per day, 80 euros per night. Worn out by these abuses, they ended up alerting the labor inspectorate themselves. Which orchestrated coordinated checks in four sorting centers in the Ile-de-France region at the end of 2022. NTI managers liquidated their company a few weeks later. But several of its undocumented employees were able to continue working for several months in the same sorting centers, on a temporary basis this time, prove the contracts they showed to the World.
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