Some 112 trucks at the Zeebrugge premises of international haulier North Sea Express (NSE) were seized and sealed by Belgian police as part of an investigation into social dumping.
The international haulier, which has offices in Zeebrugge, Tilbury Port in the UK, Slovakia and Portugal is being investigated for its use of Romanian drivers, employed by its Slovakian subcontractor East Transport Leasing (ETL).
It was as part of a large-scale investigation into organised social dumping involving the establishment of fake companies in Romania and Slovakia, which were allegedly used to employ over 1,100 drivers from the two countries to systematically skip social security contributions to Belgium.
Legal auditor Filiep De Ketelaere of the Belgian public prosecutor’s office told Belgian press that the public prosecutor was looking into allegations of social dumping at NSE.
De Ketelaere said the public prosecutor’s office was investigating allegations that “the manager of the Slovak company is the same as that of the Belgian company" and that ETL’s Slovakian headquarters are "only a post office box”.
Belgian trade union ACV Transcom saidit had filed a complaint against NSE and ETL’s employment practices in 2014. ACV Transcom officer Liesbet Verboven said: “We already had a strong suspicion that ETL is a PO Box in Bratislava to circumvent the fiscal and social obligations in Belgium.”
She added: “We are pleased that the court has finally entered the company,” adding: “the fight against social dumping is finally taken seriously and the big players are not being spared"
Trade union BTB official John Reynaert, said: “Belgian hauliers are very resourceful in reducing costs, setting up businesses in Eastern Europe and bringing cheap Eastern European workers here (who) have to live and work as slaves for months on end in the truck, without sanitation. "
North Sea Express MD Dirk Callant was reported in local press as saying that any suggestion NSE had used social dumping to undercut local rates “was strictly wrong".
He said no charges have been laid against the company, which had “every confidence in the outcome of the investigation”.
A spokeswoman at NSE told CM the company did not want to comment further “while there is still an investigation going on”.