French construction company Vinci said Monday it expects to be indicted this week by a judge investigating alleged abusive labor practices at its construction sites in Qatar.
The group said its subsidiary Vinci Constructions Grands Projets was summoned on Wednesday by a French judge investigating its infrastructure projects in Qatar “with a view to an indictment”.
Under French law, an indictment requires the judge to believe there is compelling evidence against the company, but the decision is subject to appeal and does not automatically mean the case goes to court.
The Paris-based group regretted the development and denies allegations of use of forced labor and participation in human trafficking.
Two French NGOs – Sherpa and the Committee Against Modern Slavery – and seven former employees from India and Nepal who worked on Vinci construction sites have filed a series of legal complaints against the company dating back to 2015.
They allege that staff working at World Cup-related sites worked 66 to 77 hours a week, had their passports confiscated and were forced to live in indecent housing.
In his statement Monday, Vinci denied that the public transport sites in question are linked to the World Cup and said they were awarded to the company before the 2010 soccer tournament was attributed to Qatar.
“We have tried in vain to persuade the judge that after seven and a half years of investigations, it is not a particularly good time to imagine filing charges a fortnight before the start of the World Cup,” Vinci’s attorney Jean-Pierre Versini-Campinchi told AFP . He fears a “media storm”.
Sherpa welcomed the possible deepening of the French investigation.
“If Vinci were indicted, it would confirm that multinationals are finding it increasingly difficult to hide behind their supply chains, the notion that it is ‘too complicated’ to act,” Sherpa said.
– railway lines –
Investigators from the anti-corruption NGO first visited Qatar in 2014, where they reportedly met Vinci project workers whose passports had been confiscated and who were forced to work in temperatures exceeding 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).
The group claimed that some of the abuses took place at subcontractors employed by third-party companies working for Vinci’s Qatari subsidiary, Qatari Diar Vinci Construction.
Qatari Diar Vinci Construction employed 11,000 people at its peak and was responsible for the construction of the 37-station Lusail Light Rail Transit System around Doha, as well as the Red Line of the Qatari capital’s metro system.
It also built the Sheraton luxury hotel in Doha.
The company unsuccessfully sued Sherpa for defamation after its first lawsuit in 2015.
Qatar has faced a barrage of criticism over the deaths of migrant workers and its labor laws since being named host of the World Cup.
Since the beginning of the French judicial investigation, she has made significant changes, including ending her so-called “kafala” work system.
This meant that a worker could not change jobs or leave the country without permission from their employer.
French trade union organizations conducted an audit of conditions for Vinci workers in Qatar in 2019, which concluded that workers’ rights were being respected.
