Prosecutors seize €3.3m from meat industry boss for wage theft

Investigators have seized about €3.3 million in assets from the shareholder of a meat-sector temp agency suspected of stealing foreign workers’ wages, as the government weighs whether to bar the industry from using agency labour.

The Dutch labour inspectorate’s criminal investigation service, acting under the public prosecution department (OM), said it had frozen bank accounts, a plot of land and property in the Netherlands, along with 20 properties in Germany worth around €2.4 million.

The agency and its shareholder – who has remained unnamed – are suspected of embezzling more than €2.1 million. Investigators estimate the suspect gained a further €2.4 million from similar offences, putting his total unlawful profit at around €4.5 million. He was arrested earlier in the inquiry, which is continuing.

Wages withdrawn in cash

Foreign workers hired through the agency did not receive their pay in their own bank accounts, the inspectorate said. Account numbers were altered in the agency’s payroll records so that wages went to accounts thought to be controlled by its staff, then taken out in cash.

No assets were seized at the agency itself, to avoid disrupting its operations and the wages of workers currently employed there. A further hearing is due in August.

The case comes as the meat industry waits to hear whether social affairs minister Hans Vijlbrief will go ahead with a threatened ban on agency labour in slaughterhouses, following years of reported abuses involving foreign workers. The inspectorate said it would publish a report on its oversight of Dutch meat companies before the summer.