After there were massive security violations at the Frequency Festival in St. Pölten last year, this year’s financial police operation resulted in fewer violations. Nevertheless, several cases of illegal employment were uncovered, the Ministry of Finance announced on Sunday. Checks were also carried out around the Coldplay concerts in Vienna, where violations were also discovered.
At Frequency, 174 employee checks in the security, catering and cleaning sectors revealed 18 violations of the ASVG. In four cases, wage dumping was suspected. “The security companies also practically did not keep the mandatory working time records,” the ministry wrote. In addition, the financial police collected more than 270,000 euros in debt attachments.
154 people checked
During the Coldplay concerts, 154 people were checked, mainly from the security industry. Eleven violations of the ASVG and one violation of the Foreigners Employment Act were found. Further investigations are ongoing in several cases. One company was charged with 4,000 euros in back taxes, while another case is suspected of being a bogus company. Mobile “stall vendors” were reported because they did not carry cash registers.
Since some of the employees checked also receive unemployment benefits, emergency assistance or minimum income, some check notifications were also sent to the AMS. There could be social benefit fraud.
