On April 14, 2016, seven Egyptian workers climbed a crane on a construction site in Belgium and threatened to jump. They had been trafficked and were working gruelling shifts for no pay.  

Those workers never got justice because the construction company escaped national law. But we can make sure that cases like this stop occurring by calling for laws that hold businesses accountable for modern slavery and other harm. Join the campaign today. 

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A Belgium mall built on unpaid work 

Rive Gauche is a shopping center in Charleroi that was built between 2014 and 2017. 

Like in many construction projects, the client – in this case, Canadian Groupe St. Lambert – subcontracted multiple different organizations to supply workers and supervise the construction process. This spider web of sketchy subcontractors and untraceable companies led to a nightmare on the ground. 

The management company Gruppo Bison controlled hundreds of construction sites – yet had no registered employees at all. Instead, it hired small, short-lived companies to supply workers for sites in Europe. 

Employees were trafficked to Belgium without working permits – some not even aware that they were being transported and employed illegally.  

Companies who had not yet paid their workers suddenly went out of business. Long shifts were the norm. Labor abuses continued even after inspections, and responsibility for social security remained unclear. 

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It got so bad that workers threatened to commit suicide if they didn’t get paid. A few months later, another group of workers were beaten in the street for protesting conditions.  

“As is usually the case in social dumping, this whole construct of companies was deliberately organised to keep the profits and the power in-house for the main contractors, and outsource the risk and the responsibilities to the smaller, often foreign companies.”— Carlo Briscolini, General secretary of the General Labor Federation of Belgium, Charleroi.

Similar subcontracting practices and the abuse of workers rights remain the norm in the construction sector and other industries in Europe. These confusing models and exploitative business practices propagate labor rights abuses and make it complicated to identify who should be held responsible. 

But with robust laws that ensure human rights are upheld throughout value chains, companies will no longer be able to get away with these tricks. Join us in calling on the E.U. to develop a due diligence law with teeth.  

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In solidarity,

Monica and the team that supports the Freedom United community

Monica Burns Freedom United Campaigner