The construction workers in the tunnel of the RijnlandRoute near Leiden worked for months under unsafe conditions, sometimes resulting in accidents. For example, they structurally worked much longer than allowed by law.
This is evident from research by NRC based on conversations with thirty people involved, and documents such as internal reports, rosters, pay slips and visual material. The client of the province of South Holland, jointly responsible for safety in the tunnel, says he is shocked and is considering taking steps.
Since 2017, the province has been working on the RijnlandRoute, a new highway between the A4 and the A44. The showpiece here is the more than two and a half kilometers long Corbulo tunnel.
In the past four years, there were seventeen accidents ‘with absenteeism’ in and around the tunnel, according to an internal accident overview from the main contractor. In 2019, a Polish construction worker died while assembling the tunnel boring machine. The confidential investigation report states that time constraints, poor communication, lack of instruction and the repeated lack of “the correct or functioning tools” contributed to the accident. The training of employees was ‘inadequate for the performance of the assigned tasks’. Schedules show that the – mostly Portuguese and Polish – construction workers underground worked in shifts of twelve hours, sometimes seven days or nights: more than eighty hours a week.
This is in violation of the Working Hours Act, says director Ben Bleumer of the FNV trade union when he examines the rosters when asked. “An employee may not work more than 60 hours a week.” The construction collective labor agreement is even stricter than the law. If a contractor nevertheless wants to work longer, he must agree this with the unions, says Bleumer. “The main contractor and the employment agency have not done that here. They have gone way beyond their limits.”
Main contractor Comol5 says in a response that the schedules are based on schedules drawn up in consultation with previous tunnels, but cannot demonstrate this. The company does not recognize the unsafe working atmosphere that ex-employees describe. Safety is the most important thing in construction, says the project director.
The payment to the construction workers also rattled. For example, they regularly received their salary late. Employment agency Oranjegroep attributes this to a change in the payment system. According to the company, what was paid too little has been corrected with back payments. It claims to be a ‘remote employer’, which means that it has no view of the activities on the construction site.