Le Monde, one of the main French newspapers, compares the situation experienced by the workers hired by the Murcian temporary work company Terra Fecundis to work as day laborers in France with the novel Germinal. There, in the Gallic country, it has just hold a trial against her with allegations of course massive fraud and labor exploitation for conditions classified as “inhumane”.
The French Prosecutor’s Office estimates that the alleged Social Security fraud would amount to 80 million euros. (Photo: Getty Images)
Both in the article in the French newspaper and in the one published by El Closure Digital, which has the testimony of a woman who worked for them, they insist on the abusive conditions of the work and the alleged fraud in the contributions by these workers. The prosecution, in its first brief, accused Terra Fecundis of having incurred in Illegalities in the transfer of workers to French territory. There is talk of thousands, whose rights were violated.
Thus, for example, they are accused of avoiding obligations such as breaks, a minimum remuneration, register them in social security and exceed the hours of the day. In addition, cases of harassment are also mentioned. The civil prosecution has come to refer to this case as the “largest case of fraud against the social protection system tried in France.”
In the breakdown of the facts of which the company is accused, the aforementioned means collect, there is undeclared work and a “haggling of labor in an organized gang”. His way of acting was to hire day laborers of mostly Latin American origin in Spain and send them to France. With their way of proceeding eluded payment to Social Security, between 2012 and 2015, of more than 80 million euros, according to the calculations of the Prosecutor. That figure, plus 30 million for arrears, is what the civil prosecution claims.
They mention an investigation carried out by the Central for the Fight against Illegal Work (OCLTI) in which it was found that the working hours lasted up to 14 hours and it was pointed out, collects The digital closure, the death of a worker to whom He was not allowed to drink and died of heatstroke. In her statements to this medium, a former employee of this ETT has described her experience as an “odyssey” and described the conditions as “inhumane”.
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CODETRAS, a group dedicated to defending the rights of foreign agricultural workers, has shown in this case that “temporary employment and the intermediation of temporary employment agencies allow farmers to have a supernumerary workforce and, therefore, flexible, since, it can be fired at any time. Most are unaware of their rights and do not speak French. It is common, then, that they are not paid their overtime, that the housing they are assigned is unworthy and that they are harassed both morally and sexually “.
The French Prosecutor’s Office considers that the Murcian company has not complied with current regulations since 80% of its work volume is located in France should have a headquarters in France and comply with the labor laws there. In his accusation, the Prosecutor accuses Terra Fecundis of a “vast fraud” and considers that maintaining its headquarters in Spanish territory “was intended to avoid the payment of social and tax contributions related to the establishment of an establishment in France and to propose a labor at a lower cost than that which could be offered by a French temp agency ”.
The final request of the Prosecutor has been five years for the three defendants, Juan José López Pacheco, Francisco López Pacheco and Celedenio Perea Coll, and a fine of 80,000 euros and inactivation.
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