BOREALISChemical company Borealis has suspended the contract with contractor IREM-Ponticelli until further notice after reports of possible malpractice at a construction site in Kallo. The company announced this in a press release this evening.
The works at the relevant construction site in Kallo will be halted for three days. There were possibly 55 victims of human trafficking at work on the site. It would be men from the Philippines and Bangladesh. They would be underpaid and poorly housed. The Borealis company denies any involvement in possible malpractice.
“Following recent developments and news reports of alleged malpractice by one of its contractors at the new propane dehydrogenation (PDH) facility in Kallo, and following the findings of our own task force, set up on Tuesday, Borealis has decided to suspend a three-day shutdown. to be welded in on the construction site,” Borealis reported in a press release. “In addition, the contract with IREM-Ponticelli, the contractor responsible for the construction of the new PDH site, will be suspended with immediate effect and until further notice.”
Contractor IREM-Ponticelli also says it is not guilty of human trafficking. IREM-Ponticelli previously stated that “all foreign workers earn more than the Belgian minimum wage”. The company wants to cooperate in all transparency with the investigation of the authorities.
Former labor prosecutor and former judge Ebe Verhaegen came to know about the social abuses by taking in a Ukrainian worker who worked on the Borealis construction site through a Romanian subcontractor in Wommelgem. He paid the Ukrainians an hourly wage of 7 euros instead of the officially mandatory 13 euros. Verhaegen filed a complaint with the social inspectorate in May.
Check
Flemish Minister of Work and Economy Jo Brouns (CD&V) wants to check everyone on the site whether they have received the correct contracts. This concerns a total of 314 people. No permit was requested from the Flemish inspectorate for the 55 workers who may be victims of human trafficking. In other words, it is possible that abuses remain under the radar. Brouns wants to do everything in his power to rule out all possible malpractice.
“On the one hand, there is human trafficking. These people do not have a work permit. We usually find out through a tip. On the other hand, there is the number of people who have received a work permit. There we can investigate whether the conditions linked to the work permit are actually being complied with,” says Brouns.
Also review. Borealis informed in May about exploitation on construction sites:
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