Korneel DelbekeSource: BELGIAN
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The three were arrested on Monday and arrested on Tuesday after a raid on three PostNL depots. It concerns CEO Rudy Van Rillaer, operations manager John de Bruin and a third person responsible. Van Rillaer was released by the court under conditions, it is not known which conditions he must comply with. The other two men were not given any conditions. Master Verhaeghe is satisfied with the decision of the council chamber.
It is not yet clear on Friday afternoon whether the labor prosecutor will appeal against the decision of the council chamber. “The labor inspectorate is deliberating a possible appeal until Monday afternoon,” it sounds in a short press release from the Antwerp labor inspectorate. This means that the three will remain in jail until at least Monday afternoon.
PostNL is relieved to respond to the decision of the Mechelen council chamber. The company responds with a short statement. “We are very relieved that the council chamber has decided that our colleagues can go home. It now remains to be seen when. They are completely unnecessarily trapped under 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 of the serious allegations in the media and will defend itself vigorously against them.”
Undeclared work and undocumented migrants
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 at the parcel couriers, who do not work directly for PostNL, but are independent subcontractors or employed by a subcontractor. These included undeclared work and the employment of undocumented migrants.
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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 are scheduled for 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 will enter a new phase and may lead to a new criminal trial, causing the hearings to expire in September.
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, today, before his client had to appear in court. 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 De Standaard. “That has a huge impact on them, their families and all employees. We are treated like criminals, even though we are a neat, publicly traded company.”
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