Barcelona’s Institutional VIce-President, Elena Fort, has come out publicly to deny that workers carrying out the renovation work on Camp Nou are being exploited.
A documentary was recently released which shows interviews with several workers, the only active ones speaking anonymously, who allege that they are suffering from workplace abuse, including being overworked and illegally paid.
“No. [It’s] As categorical as no. There are no workers who are suffering labour abuses,” Fort told El Periodico, as carried by Sport.
“If we had had a complaint, we would have acted. Obviously. They would have made a complaint to EL PERIODICO, but no complaint has been made to the club. Neither has the Labour Standards Office opened a case. Nor has there been anything detected within our internal processes to suggest there is any type of irregularity.”
Another of the complaints has been that the conditions around the building site are not safe.
“They have had three surprise inspections by the Labour Standards Office, which is a much higher number than in any work of these characteristics in the last five months. And those inspections have determined some type of need to correct minor issues. I think they were the height of a fence, some very minor issues.”
Specifically on the pay issue, Fort said Barcelona were looking into the issue, but claimed negligence rather than intentionally poor treatment. She also noted that the hours and conditions, which those in the report complain about as being too much, are labour conditions that have been agreed to by the employees.
“I don’t know. There are five pay slips [in the investigation] when there are more than 2,000 during the entire execution of the work. And one thing is that there could be an error in the pay slips. We are reviewing that. But all contracts go through Social Security. Not a single contract that has been made is below the agreed terms. In construction contracts, by agreement, work is done six days a week, maximum 12 hours.”
Another particularly grim case is described by one worker who has been sleeping outside of the stadium in order to arrive on time, after he was berated for arriving late, despite the lack of transport options. Fort believed that this was both an isolated case, and not the only solution.
“That’s a bitter thing for all of us. But we are talking about the fact that more than 2,000 workers have worked here, that there is a schedule. From what I read, because we don’t know him, he came from Manresa. If the train arrives half an hour late, there is still an earlier bus. I don’t know. Obviously it is a circumstance. We don’t have 2,000 workers sleeping on the streets, which means things are working.”
What a despicable organization… where there are lesser crimes, there are larger ones too, and exploitation easily turns into bribery.