Undocumented Workers Sue French Waste Companies for Exploitation

"I worked at NTI for three years, without a contract. I sorted waste on the conveyor belt while I was pregnant. I had to work nights until the birth. Today, my daughter is three and a half years old," Hind tells RFI, coming with her little girl to the Paris Labor Court, the court responsible for settling labor disputes in France. Other individuals who had worked for NTI, a specialized waste sorting subcontractor, were also present. This company, which was placed in receivership almost two years ago, had hired them to work for the waste sector giants, Veolia, Suez or Paprec.

"I worked five years in the black, in incineration, in the furnaces. Sometimes I worked during the day, at night. We worked without training, we did overtime without being paid. We were not entitled to unemployment, we could not refuse a job. Sometimes they called us at night to start in the morning. And if you refused, you had no work the following month," confesses another employee.

The lawyer for these former employees, Katia Piantino, accuses the giants of the waste sector of having deliberately turned a blind eye: "The Labor Code requires principals to verify that their subcontractor is not committing illegal work. This means that they do not employ foreign workers without a permit and do not commit undeclared work. We ask them not to ignore, because what emerges from the file is that they have benefited from a very cheap workforce from the subcontractor NTI, which has won all the subcontracting contracts in the sector. Why? Because the workforce was much cheaper... Strangely, since it was not declared."

Ali Chaligny, CGT union representative at Veolia who accompanies these former employees, also denounces a real system: "These are jobs in tension where companies have difficulty recruiting, and as a result, there is a relocation of the workforce of employees. Since we cannot relocate our household waste collection and treatment activities, to make up for this labor shortage, we relocate employees in France to provide these essential services to the nation."

These employees will still have to wait, as the hearing has finally been postponed to September 26, 2025.