” It’s a relief after these four long years.”, breathes Laïd, brother-in-law of Kamel Benstaali, the only member of the family of the victims who was able to make the trip. On Tuesday April 4, 2023, the Bobigny Criminal Court sentenced five men and their companies to fines of up to 100,000 euros and one year in prison, after the death of two workers, undeclared and inexperienced employees on a construction site in Seine-Saint-Denis. Convicted persons have ten days to appeal.
The story dates back to Saturday June 8, 2019. Kamel Benstaali, 34, and Omar Azzouz, 29, worked on the thermal renovation of tower D of the La Source housing estate, in Epinay-sur-Seine (Seine-Saint-Denis) . It was necessary to load the buckets of glue up to the top of the building, thanks to a lifting platform, which, in the morning, was unhooked from the 18e stage.
Both men worked for the SRI company. The company intervened for ISO systems, on behalf of Isore Bâtiment. It was the latter that had won the market for the rehabilitation of part of the Cité de la Source – sites owned by Plaine commune habitat – for several million euros. Owner of the scaffolding, Isore Bâtiment had subcontracted its installation to the company Technimat as well as the control of the platform to Qualiconsult.
“Drama of subcontracting”
The trial, at the end of January, had highlighted the workings of subcontracting and the complexity of defining everyone’s responsibilities: a poorly set up platform, untrained workers, non-existent control… “Here we have a perfect illustration of the drama of subcontracting”, said Alix Bukulin, the prosecutor:
“Each defendant is part of a chain of faults, and each considers that it is so diluted that he says to himself “it’s not me, it’s the other”. »
Yet two men died and there are many “responsible”, advances the president of the court, Elisabeth Dugré. Of the seven defendants, two were released. Gilbert Baptiste, who worked for Isore building, for whom the prosecution had requested an eight-month suspended prison sentence. The president recalled that it was up to Qualiconsult to carry out the checks and that the company, by subcontracting to ISO systems, was not the employer of the victims. Thierry-Leufroy Emmanuel, who worked for ISO systems, but whose “prerogatives were not considered sufficient”, was also released.
However, the ISO systems company was sentenced to a fine of 45,000 euros and its representative, Vincent Baloche, to a one-year suspended prison sentence. The shoulders of Mr. Baloche, stoic until then, sag at this announcement. Relaxed concerning the use of subcontracting without approval, he was found guilty of concealed work. ” Given SRI’s very low labor cost, ISO Systems could not ignore that SRI was using undeclared labor “, abounds the president.
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