(Updated with quotes, clarifications)
PARIS, November 7 (Reuters) – Vinci announced on Monday that the French courts had summoned its subsidiary Vinci Construction Grands Projets to a possible indictment on Wednesday due to suspicions about working conditions on construction sites in Qatar, which organizes the Football World Cup from November 20.
The French group says it refute the accusations against its subsidiary, stresses that it has not built any stadium or hotel for the World Cup in Qatar and undertakes to continue to cooperate with French justice.
“The Vinci group confirms the summons on November 9 by the Nanterre investigating judge, of its subsidiary Vinci Construction Grands Projets with a view to a possible indictment (..)”, Vinci said in a press release.
“Since 2015, Vinci has vigorously refuted the allegations made against it concerning construction sites in Qatar,” he adds.
According to the group, the accusations relate to working conditions on construction sites in Qatar led by the company QDVC, in which Vinci Construction Grands Projets holds a 49% stake.
A first complaint filed by the Sherpa organization on March 24, 2015 was dismissed on January 31, 2018. Sherpa then filed a complaint with civil action on September 25, 2018 with an anonymous witness cited in the initial complaint of 2015.
Sherpa and another NGO, the Committee Against Modern Slavery (CCEM), again announced in November 2018 the filing of a
new complaint
for forced labour, enslavement, trafficking in human beings, work incompatible with human dignity, deliberate endangerment, involuntary injuries and concealment.
Qatar is the target of much criticism for the working conditions of workers, mostly immigrants, on the sites of its stadiums.
Vinci said on Monday that the projects entrusted to QDVC are not linked to the Football World Cup and relate “essentially to transport infrastructure”.
The group also wonders about the timetable for the possible indictment of its subsidiary.
“Vinci can only deplore that while the procedure has been open for seven years, its subsidiary is the subject of an indictment just on the eve of the opening of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, an over-mediatised period. unfavorable to the serenity of the debates”, he said. “However, Vinci will continue to work with the judiciary, with the objective of making known that the allegations against him are not justified.”
On the Paris Stock Exchange, Vinci shares fell 2.17% around 07:20 GMT, among the largest declines in the CAC 40 index, itself down 0.39%. (Written by Bertrand Boucey, with Laetitia Volga, edited by Nicolas Delame)