Uncovering Exploitation: Lessons from Valentin’s Job Nightmare in Belgium

2023-09-13 12:27:00

With the start of the school year, this time when many start looking for a job, Valentin, who is coming out of a bad experience, wanted to share two or three pieces of advice. Because being pigeonholed, he says, leaves a bitter taste. And, in his case, a stubborn rage.

Valentin is French, he is twenty-eight years old and it was a stay in our Ardennes, during the summer of 2022, which led him to discover Bastogne. “I discovered the magnificent region and the very welcoming people”

Well, almost all…

After seven years in the Horeca sector, the Frenchman, who dreamed of regular hours, was looking for a job in the region and contacted a temp agency for this purpose.

At the end of October 2022, he thought he had found what he was looking for: a store specializing in alcohol and spirits offered to hire him as a temporary worker. “I was attracted,” admits Valentin. “I liked the work, the salary was decent and the boss was friendly. I had just lost my father. It was a complicated moment and this gentleman was really very empathetic.”

Valentin does not reproach the temp agency. On the contrary, he thanks her for supporting him when problems arose.

This happened gradually.

Promise of a permanent contract

Everything was going so well that following three months, the manager, visibly satisfied, offered Valentin to hire him in the company, immediately on a permanent contract. Enthusiastic, Valentin accepted. We are now at the end of January. It was shortly following, he says, that things got out of control and spiraled out of control.

On an administrative level, you should know that the European foreigner who requests a residence permit for a period of more than three months must obtain what is called an Annex 19. He must send the request to the municipality and accompany proof of a formal employment contract.

Was there any form of blackmail? During February, as the days passed, the employer was visibly having difficulty editing the contract, which put Valentin in difficulty. “In reality, theoretically I no longer even had the right to be on Belgian soil.”

Reproaches and insults

Valentin adds that when he was hired, the employer offered to declare 19 hours/week, the rest being paid in black. “There, I made the mistake of accepting. It was tempting, it was a permanent contract and I was going but I was putting my finger in the gear.”

Until then, Valentin had been paid on time. From February, he will be paid late. A delay that would grow. March salary will be paid on April 7. The one in April, May 20, etc.

At the same time, Valentin no longer counted his hours. It describes a sort of infernal spiral. “They always demanded more of me. Concretely, I worked much more than 38 hours. I became like a lemon being squeezed.”

And the atmosphere at work had changed. The reproaches rained down. The boss questioned his motivation and became harassing, denigrating, uncomfortable. “I received insulting messages.”

“Great idiot I was”

Valentin gave up in mid-May 2023, while he was still waiting for his salary for the month of April. “It mightn’t continue. I was dreading Monday. I was exhausted, exhausted. I was going to do stupid things. I had to see a doctor.”

The doctor, finding him in a state of great stress, prescribed anxiolytics, antidepressants, sleeping pills, and plenty of rest, and placed him incapacitated. “As stupid as I was, I took the medication and returned to work without taking the rest period he had prescribed.”

Fifteen days later, friends took him by force to the hospital. “I didn’t realize it but I was going to commit suicide.”

Contract-WhatsApp

Bastogne is not big. The boss, however, might not find his way to the clinic where his employee was hospitalized.

On the other hand, he announced to him, the next day, by message, that he was firing him for ‘abandoning his post’.

Valentin had still not received the paper copy of the CDI contract announced in January. According to him, the employer only sent him a copy – unsigned – by WhatsApp. He had still not received his May salary either. The employer finally paid him, at the beginning of July, an advance of 200 euros.

Refuse

When he tells us regarding his setbacks, Valentin has left Bastogne. He returned to Paris. He calculated that at that moment, the employer owed him around 2,000 euros. “I miss this money. I’m looking for a job in France. For a new start, it would be easier if I had the 2,000 euros in my pocket.”

The Frenchman filed a complaint in Liège, Namur and Arlon with the social inspectorate. By taking the steps, he learned that the Bastogne employer would not be making his first attempt. He would be accustomed to a stratagem which consists of creating companies in which he absolutely avoids appearing. He has just opened a business near Montpellier and is selling regional products from Occitanie that are actually made in Belgium.

Valentin is full of anger. “The job market is complicated. There are tens of thousands of us looking. Recruiting employers are monitored, of course, but this is clearly insufficient to prevent abuse. Do the social inspectors have the staff and resources? means? I filed a complaint but I’m still waiting for a response. In any case, if I have any advice to give, don’t agree to work for a lousy boss who suggests not declaring everything according to the rules. You you always lose.”

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