The Mechelen council chamber has decided that Rudy Van Rillaer, the Belgian CEO of PostNL, may be released under certain conditions. But because the labor inspectorate will only decide on a possible appeal on Monday, he will remain in jail until then.
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Rudy Van Rillaer, the Belgian CEO of PostNL, was arrested Monday, along with two other employees of the Dutch postal company, on suspicion of human trafficking, forgery, prohibited posting and leading a criminal organization. Today they had to appear before the Mechelen council chamber, which has decided that Van Rillaer may leave prison, ‘under classical conditions’, says his lawyer, Michaël Verhaeghe. The standard† The other two suspects were not given any conditions for their release.
However, that does not mean that they can leave prison immediately. The labor prosecutor will not decide whether to appeal until Monday afternoon, it says in a response. Until then, Van Rillaer and his colleagues will remain in jail.
PostNL says in a response to be ‘greatly relieved’ with the decision of the council chamber. “They are completely unnecessarily stuck in difficult circumstances. This has a major impact on them, on their families and on all our employees. We will continue to support them where we can. PostNL has not seen any evidence for the serious accusations in the media and will defend itself vigorously against them.’
Repeated Violations
The arrests were made as part of a long-running investigation into PostNL. The Dutch postal company already came under the attention of the court last year, after inspections at depots repeatedly found infringements of parcel couriers. They are not directly employed by PostNL, but work as independent subcontractors or are employed by a subcontractor. These included undeclared work and the employment of undocumented migrants. During the last check, two depots of the Dutch parcel company were also sealed.
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Last year, the Mechelen labor prosecutor collected more than fifty files of infringements at subcontractors in a criminal case, which he brought against PostNL. According to the labor prosecutor and the trade unions, which filed a civil party, the parcel company is at least jointly responsible for what they call structural social fraud and appalling working conditions at the subcontractors. PostNL’s lawyers, on the other hand, believe that files involving infringements at subcontractors should be treated separately.
House searches
The pleadings in the criminal trial will take place in September. The crucial question is whether or not PostNL is (jointly) responsible if infringements are found at the subcontractors. A few weeks ago, the labor prosecutor ordered an investigating judge, who can also carry out house searches or make arrests. It is not yet known whether these searches have yielded additional information. But the investigation enters a new phase and could lead to a new criminal trial, which would result in the sessions being canceled in September.
• Are (parcel) companies responsible for abuses at independent couriers?
PostNL reacted bewildered to the arrests of the Belgian top executives, and spoke of ‘intimidation’ by the Belgian court. The arrest also had a ‘huge impact’ on those involved, said John Maes, lawyer for John de Bruin, the operational director of PostNL in our country, before his client had to appear in court today. He is in prison for the first time in his life. Life in prison is no fun. The prisons are overcrowded and the conditions are not good.’
Earlier this week, Liesbeth Kaashoek, PostNL’s Dutch logistics director, also criticized the poor conditions in the cell. Van Rillaer and the other two suspects “share a cell with four others, are not given clean clothes and only eat once a day,” she said in an interview with The standard† “We are treated like criminals, even though we are a neat, publicly traded company.”
• Top woman PostNL: ‘We are treated like criminals. this is idiot’
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