A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #352 - Interviews with undocumented workers (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Testimonies of undocumented workers ---- The following two interviews 
were conducted by the "L'actualité des luttes" team on Fréquence Paris 
Plurielle. They provide a stark insight into the situation of 
overexploitation experienced by undocumented workers. It is important to 
understand that the hunt for undocumented workers, which seems to be the 
be-all and end-all of government policy for some time now, does not have 
as its primary objective the expulsion of as many undocumented workers 
as possible from the country. The primary goal, by increasing the 
pressure they are under, is to force them to accept conditions close to 
slavery. The aim here is to reproduce the conditions of exploitation in 
the poorest developing countries. In the process, this allows for the 
designation of a scapegoat and saves on transportation costs. All 
benefits, then.

This can be verified on the issue of "jobs in shortage," which allows 
for regularizations. A list by region was published by the Ministry. We 
see that these are mainly very specific qualifications. However, we do 
not find cleaning or logistics, sectors that are nevertheless large 
users of undocumented labor. This is because just as SME owners who lack 
qualified labor are requesting regularizations to be able to hire, the 
cleaning and logistics sectors need very cheap labor in order to reduce 
costs. Both in the sectors in question to resist competition, and in the 
interest of industry and services in general because these are 
obligatory costs (cleaning and distribution must be done) that must be 
compressed.

Interview with undocumented employees formerly NTI
Last April, the struggle news team [1]went to the Gennevilliers labor 
exchange to meet former NTI employees from 2019 to 2023. NTI, a sorting 
and cleaning subcontracting company, was placed in receivership two 
years ago, but the former employees are now targeting the contractors. 
All of them have decided to take NTI to the labor court, as well as the 
subsidiaries of Veolia, Suez, Paprec and Urbaser, where they were 
assigned...

History
On August 28, 2023, eight men and three women occupied the XVEO Veolia 
sorting center in Paris. Originally from Morocco or Algeria, they had 
been working in sorting centers in the Paris region since 2019. At the 
beginning of 2023, following labor inspections, NTI stopped giving them 
work. The company's managers put the company into receivership to avoid 
sanctions, inspections, and monitoring, and some of its managers have 
since founded AR Environnement. The employees are claiming damages for 
discrimination, undeclared work, and challenging the termination of 
their employment contracts. In addition, they are requesting permanent 
employment in one of the subsidiaries and regularization of their 
employment, a promise made by NTI.
They were granted an initial hearing on November 8, 2023, at the 
Conciliation and Guidance Office (BCO) of the Paris Labor Court to sue 
NTI, as well as Veolia, Suez, Paprec, and Urbaser. In the meantime, 
Veolia has kept its promises to hire these employees once their 
situation has been clarified by the prefecture. Initially scheduled for 
November 24, 2024, the next hearing has been postponed to September 26, 
2025.

Working conditions

Nadia from the show "L'actualité des luttes": "NTI generally employs 
vulnerable people, men in precarious situations or women who are raising 
their children alone or are pregnant, which forces them to work in 
conditions that no one would accept with papers."

Ischam : "I worked from 2017 to May 2021 without a contract, without 
leave, or training, in the furnaces and in the incineration plants. I 
was paid 60 euros a day and 80 euros a night."

Anasse : "I've been working for a year and a half without a contract 
with NTI, even during Covid. Then I got a "permanent contract at the end 
of the construction site," which doesn't exist. I do the work that the 
hired workers don't want to do. My overtime is stolen and I'm not paid, 
and to be hired back the following week, I have to give a certain amount 
to the team leader. Sometimes I work nights until 4 a.m. and go to 
another site from 6 a.m. until 3 p.m. I can't refuse, otherwise they 
tell me to get lost, and I have a family to support back home. I've had 
two work accidents, one with Veolia, while doing maintenance, I fell 2 
meters, the other at Paprec, I was made to clean under a sorting belt, 
which is prohibited. No protection, no safety shoes, nothing is provided 
by the employer. We take the protective equipment we find in the 
companies where we work and which belongs to other employees." He is 
Algerian and his boss tells him that he doesn't like Algerians. He 
prefers Moroccans.

Nadia : "This is reminiscent of the 1970s when bosses would go and find 
workers directly in their villages in Morocco, because Moroccans were 
supposed to be more docile."
It took one a year, the other six months to arrive in France, passing 
through Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Albania, Austria, 
and Italy on foot through the woods, sometimes assaulted by border police.
Y. was hired at NTI, where he is paid in cash, with no pay slips, no 
social security, no insurance, and no paid leave. "The work is really 
hard and the environment is dirty and unsafe. I am asked to drive 
machinery even though I don't have a license."

M .: "I was hired in 2018 at EPS, then in 2019 at NTI with the same 
bosses, in dangerous work paid 700 euros per month in an envelope, and 
the site manager takes up to 100 euros so that he can take you back the 
following week. Then I was moved to Carrière sur Seine, Meaux, Moulin. I 
finally got a work contract, in 2021 with Paprec."

Nadia : "Why do these companies change their names all the time?"

Ali , CGT representative at Veolia: "In fact, EPS is a company covered 
by the collective agreement for cleaning and auxiliary activities; it 
still exists. It handles subcontracting, for example, dock and 
maintenance workers, which is not the core business of an incinerator. 
The other employees and other companies are affiliated with the waste 
activities collective or with the Fedem and energy collective. To 
respond to calls for tender, EPS was behind the creation of NTI. To 
specialize in waste, it created NTI Collect, then when it was criticized 
in the media, it created AER-Environnement. These are strategies of 
changing every two years. So the employees are paid by "taxi companies."

Nadia : "We've had reports of phone calls telling employees to keep 
working even though they've been working nights. It's ad hoc management, 
with no idea whether they're going to be working or not, so people are 
being forced to do whatever they want."

Ali : "It's true that they were working 24/7 under the conventional 
on-call framework. Except that even the on-call framework doesn't allow 
for 24/7 work. They weren't even registered, so we're not dealing with 
on-call considerations. This flexibility at work comes at a price. These 
are very specific conditions that aren't allowed for all trades. On-call 
work is very structured. They were paid below traditional social 
security levels for standard working hours."

Nadia : "There are these on-call duties, the very low hourly rates, and 
the fact that employers don't pay social security contributions. 
Employers want to extend this to all workers, whether they have papers 
or not. But they're already doing it with undocumented workers; they're 
flouting collective agreements and workers' rights. No social security, 
no sick leave; it's slavery."

Ali : "We are currently counting the number of undocumented workers who 
work indirectly for the State or Local Authorities through household 
waste treatment obligations. The difficulty in counting comes from the 
fact that some are in public service, others are under public service 
delegation in the companies mentioned and among the private operators, 
some subcontract part of their activity that we consider to be "core 
business". This is why we are taking legal action for the offense of 
trafficking. In fact, subcontracting is not used for ancillary 
activities, gardening, or a one-off activity... The purpose of sorting 
centers is to sort, carry out maintenance and upkeep and the employees 
were employed for this activity."

The humiliations
Y: "We endured poor working conditions and humiliations. We are human 
beings, we aspire to dignity. When we come to work without gloves or 
masks, we are sent away. The company provides them with nothing. I found 
the helmet I'm wearing in a trash can."

L : "I worked at NTI from 2018 to 2021 without a contract, insurance, or 
vacation. I combined night and day work. I sometimes had the opportunity 
to be on the sorting belts with employees hired by Veolia. If there was 
a technical problem, the employees waited for it to be resolved, but we 
were always sent to clean up elsewhere. When there were only NTI 
employees at night with Veolia, the belt turned faster. We sorted 75 
tons in 5 hours at night, while they only sorted 40 tons during the day. 
We were called at all hours, sometimes 2 a.m. to clean up when the 
machines stopped."

B: "The boss asked me to bring a fake paper to declare myself. All the 
managers of Veolia companies, etc., know that we don't have papers. But 
they maintain relationships and receive gifts from the heads of NTI and 
act as if they don't know anything. Once in 2021, we were working 
Saturday mornings. They called us, 16 people, to work until midnight, 
and the next day, Sunday, some still worked all day. Finding workers 
like that is impossible on Saturdays and Sundays, and especially not 
paid very well."

Accommodation
A. pays 770 euros for 16 m².
Ali: "Between 2009 and 2015, most of them lived in shelters. After the 
first strike and the victory, they were supported in rehousing. Those 
who were regularized in 2023 were able to denounce the slum landlords 
who housed them. Then the situation reversed; their landlords found 
themselves in a vulnerable situation with respect to the law and changed 
the locks on the apartments. So some find themselves on the street. 
Which was not the case during the first strike. There were three initial 
demands: hiring, papers, and recognition of the damage and its 
compensation. Then came demands regarding housing, salary, and working 
conditions."

Women

Hind, an Algerian woman who was hired at NTI in 2019, says she worked 
for three and a half years. While eight months pregnant, she continued 
to work, even at night. "I didn't even have a job contract. I wasn't 
entitled to paid vacation, meal vouchers, or maternity leave. I stopped 
sorting waste when I was eight months pregnant. It was very dangerous 
for the baby with all the dirt I was breathing in." "I also cleaned at 
the team leader's house. Since he was always behind me telling me what 
to do, I quit." Between four and ten women work on the sorting belt. 
It's often single women with children who are forced to accept these 
degrading working conditions. Ali: "For our female colleagues, in 
addition to being undocumented, they also have to be women." Since we're 
in very male-dominated collectives, it's not easy to get women to speak 
out on these issues. Parental leave isn't respected. Employing pregnant 
women up to 8 months, day and night, is illegal. This increases the risk 
of workplace accidents. And what also struck me was the management 
style: "He came to tell me what to do behind my back," Hind reports. 
Work instructions, when there's a relationship of subordination, must be 
given face to face, in our eyes or in writing, but not behind our backs. 
At NTI, the conditions were right for managing female employees behind 
their backs, for asking them to clean the managers' personal homes. 
We've had testimonies of recruitment based on beauty criteria, so the 
environment was conducive to sexual assault. This illustrates violent, 
sexist management, which can potentially lead to sexual assault. Women 
faced a challenge that men didn't face during the strike. When the CGT 
helped them with the administrative regularization process, they had to 
choose between regularization through family or work. And it wasn't easy 
for any of them.

After the strike
Nadia : "It was following an initial complaint from you that a second 
group of people went to the labor court. Can you tell us about this 
first strike to denounce these working conditions?"

Ismaël : "I was hired by EPS, which became NTI, then AR Environnement. 
After the complaint, there was no more work. We held meetings from March 
to the end of August 2023, then the strike."

Ali : "The trigger for a labor inspection is a workplace accident that 
went unreported and was tried to be covered up. Even without papers, you 
can report a workplace accident. Ismaël alerted the labor inspectorate 
and the CGT union simultaneously. But he was kept out of work. The 
contractors hid evidence from the labor inspectorate and tried to get 
rid of the employees. But the latter met at labor exchanges to organize 
and investigate these undocumented workers who work for the State and 
local authorities. After the strike, we won promises of employment from 
Veolia with an employment contract, pay slips, and vacation time, the 
receipt, a residence permit, which allows you to work. Two maintenance 
workers, four or five sorters, one infrastructure worker, and one bridge 
operator (on an overhead crane), a job in demand requiring a diploma 
(CACESS), were hired. They have developed a number of skills in 
high-demand occupations. They are not currently included in the list of 
high-demand occupations in the Île-de-France region in the new 
immigration bill. They have earned their dignity, but also a taste for 
collective struggle and strikes.

M: "I'm a maintenance worker, but I'm being asked to be a machine 
operator. So even with papers, we're still forced to work. Working 
conditions have improved, but I had a work accident, and now I'm on sick 
leave. We're still taking legal action. The managers are telling us that 
what we did to Veolia and other companies isn't good, and they're 
putting pressure on the employees."

Nadia : "We saw that first struggle. You are part of the second wave and 
you reacted to the word dignity."

H: "They struggled for 3 years working like slaves and then they got a 
contract and health insurance like all employees."

Fatima joins us with her son. She was one of the 11 strikers on August 
28, 2023. She now works as a sorter at Veolia. "With the strike, we won 
better working conditions, employment contracts, and papers. It's not 
like before, when we worked like slaves."

L : "I'm working with NTI until 2021, then on a permanent contract until 
August 2023. I'm committed to fighting for my dignity. The March 2025 
industrial tribunal summons was postponed until September. The first 
group obtained papers that allow them to have better working and living 
conditions."
Most of them have not worked since this second complaint because the 
company filed for bankruptcy. But all remain mobilized. They feel like 
second-class citizens. They expect a lot from this procedure to regain 
their dignity.

L: "I have to take out loans from friends to pay the rent. I'm brave 
enough to work, but when I'm hired on the market from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. 
for 20 euros, it's not right. When you don't have a job and no papers, 
you're nothing at all, not even a man, not even a machine. We avoid 
work, we avoid going to Paris so as not to be arrested by the police."

H : "In November 2023, we filed a lawsuit with the industrial tribunal, 
but the first hearing scheduled for November has been postponed until 
March 2024 because the companies are not responding in a timely manner; 
they're doing this on purpose."

Nadia : "Today's bosses are giving themselves the means, through 
outsourcing, hiring undocumented workers, and changing their company 
names, to deny the rights that workers, whether documented or 
undocumented, have won through struggle. There are hyper-repressive, 
hyper-security laws that blame foreigners for all the evils. And what's 
more, they exploit them in a shameful way."

H : "They take advantage of us foreigners, especially those in an 
irregular situation. The bosses are still free, they can still work, but 
not us. This has to stop. It tarnishes France's image. We didn't travel 
through 11 countries to find ourselves treated this way. We had a 
different image of France with its motto of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity."

Interview with undocumented strikers
from the Villeneuve-la-Garenne crossroads

This is a transcript of an interview conducted by the "L'actualité des 
luttes" team. In 2024, Carrefour recruited undocumented immigrants in an 
irregular situation. Management had promised them a permanent contract, 
only to ask them to bring a fake ID card in order to sign a six-month 
contract. These employees of the Villeneuve-la-Garenne store therefore 
denounced pressure and "extortion" from their superiors and were fired. 
The employees decided to go on strike and called for a rally on 
Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in front of the Carrefour entrance.

The seven laid-off workers are on site, along with Carrefour employees 
who support them. The CGT union is hoping for a massive strike, as 
without these employees, the store can no longer function. This is a way 
to exert pressure on management to meet with them and listen to their 
demands. People who come to do their shopping stop by, ask for 
information, and some stay to support them.

Hafide : "We are here to denounce an intolerable situation regarding 
undocumented workers. When I was hired, an intermediary promised me a 
permanent job paid between 1800 and 2500 euros, if I gave him 2500 
euros. And finally I find myself with a 6-month professionalization 
contract, subsidized by France Travail , without promise of employment 
and paid 1400 euros. If we are not there, the store does not function. 
The work is difficult, we carry the products, for example the liquids 
which are quite heavy and we have a heavy workload. There are 7 of us 
who have been fired, the others will have a lot of work to put 
everything on the shelves. The regional director and the regional human 
resources director came to inform me when I started at 4:30 in the 
morning that I was fired, the same for the others. This system has 
existed since at least 2024. You have to present a fake identity card 
and you are hired. But I know two people who, even before 2024, were 
fired after six months, even though they were doing a good job. People 
are fired and others are hired under the same conditions. Without the 
labor inspectorate, this situation would not have been revealed." A 
surprise inspection by the labor inspectorate has indeed demonstrated 
that there is undeclared work.

A sales associate tells the same story of extortion. He took a lot of 
risks to come to France in 2023 and had to pay smugglers. And here in 
France, he's also being officially extorted. "There's blatant 
discrimination, and the most arduous tasks are assigned to undocumented 
workers. Fortunately, the labor inspectorate passed and the CGT supports 
us, which is why we decided to go on strike. The same situation is 
happening in other Carrefour stores."

Salah : "I've been working here for six months. A former sector manager 
asked me for EUR2,500 to be hired. At first, he said I could pay EUR500 
a month, but on the first day before signing the contract, I had to make 
a payment of EUR1,500 to Western Union to stay. I had a student visa for 
Romania and then crossed four countries to arrive in France in July 
2023. I work from 5 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday to Friday and from 4 a.m. 
to 10:30 a.m. Monday and Saturday. I have to take two night buses and 
then walk 2 km. We talked with the Carrefour CGT union to decide on this 
strike. Three colleagues went to the labor inspectorate, and we hired a 
lawyer to defend ourselves. Some colleagues don't speak French; they're 
getting ripped off. We're waiting for a promise of employment and a 
CERFA (certificate of employment) to get regularized."

Mohamed , CGT union representative: "What first struck me were the 
working conditions of undocumented colleagues. They work while running 
with pallet trucks, I tell them not to take any risks. When one of them 
was fired, I accompanied him to the CGT union. I am revolted by the 
racket, which doesn't stop at 2,500 euros, but the bosses also ask them 
every month to give them gifts, for example perfumes, cigarettes. They 
take photos of the shelves if they are not tidy, they ask them for money 
otherwise they threaten to denounce them. When he stopped giving money, 
that's when Mr. H was fired.
For me, a large group like Carrefour, a multinational, ranked in the CAC 
40, which takes advantage of the vulnerable situation of its employees 
because they are undocumented, is unacceptable. That's why we're on 
strike today to support them so they can be hired on permanent contracts 
and have papers. The labor inspectorate's inspection found the 
employment of undocumented workers, a system that has been going on for 
several years and in other stores. Management is turning a blind eye to 
these unacceptable working conditions.

The other employees are shocked by this situation and stand in 
solidarity with the laid-off workers. We have launched an unlimited 
strike, and if there is no response from management, we will continue 
tomorrow and the following days. The CGT union is organizing a rally in 
Massy on May 28, where a general shareholders' meeting will take place. 
We were received this morning, along with the other unions, by the 
interim director, because the former director was suspended because of 
this affair. We are waiting for results.

"On the other hand, Carrefour supports Israel in its genocidal war in 
Palestine. There has never been any discussion about this with 
management; when we question them, they say it depends on senior 
management, that there is nothing they can do. Yet we have noticed a 
drop in sales in the Halal aisles."

On Friday, May 23, we learned that the undocumented employees and former 
employees of the Carrefour store in Villeneuve-la-Garenne had received 
promises of employment and CERFA forms, and this should be regulated by 
the end of May 2025 .

Notes
[1] Radio broadcast of current events on the struggles from 12:30 p.m. 
to 1:30 p.m., Monday to Friday, on Fréquence-Paris-Plurielle 106.3 fm.

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4493
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