The federal judicial police (FGP) of Antwerp and the social inspectorate raided PostNL locations in Wommelgem, Willebroek and Turnhout on Monday morning. This confirms Mechels labor prosecutor Gianni Reale. The depots in Wommelgem and Willebroek were sealed. A total of nine people have already been arrested.
Following numerous cases of undeclared work and other social violations, the inspection services have been carrying out checks on courier companies for some time now. In addition, drivers who work as subcontractors or on behalf of a subcontractor would have to work long hours every day. Some have to deliver as much as 250 to even 500 packages per day. The unions previously spoke of ‘modern slavery’ because the drivers often have to make do with meager wages and even barely manage to get by.
The searches are being carried out, according to labor prosecutor Gianni Reale, under the direction of an investigating judge and with the cooperation of the social inspection services, and are still in full swing. The raids are part of an investigation into social malpractice in courier services. The court does not want to release more information for the time being.
The PostNL depots in Wommelgem and Willebroek were sealed during the promotion. The depot in Wommelgem was previously sealed after a raid at the end of November.
PostNL “surprised and indignant”
PostNL is “very surprised and outraged” about the police raids. “The impact on the colleagues involved is huge,” PostNL says in a short statement. “It is completely unclear to us what purpose these actions have.”
PostNL says that it has always fully cooperated with all investigations and questions from authorities in recent months. “No major or structural abuses in our way of working have been brought to light,” the company said. “This course of events today raises major questions about the arbitrary treatment by the authorities.”
PostNL says it is doing everything it can to limit the impact for e-commerce customers and consumers as much as possible and to be able to resume normal services as quickly as possible.