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In October 2000, 122 Romanian workers employed by a German company in France won an industrial tribunal case over unpaid wages. The French government subsequently stepped in to pay the workers' wages when the company failed to do so.
In the aftermath of major storms in December 1999, various firms were engaged to clear up the destruction in the département of Charente-Maritime. The German-based company Wollner was selected to clear away damaged maritime pines in the Oléron forest. The company in question hired forestry workers from northern Romania. Their employment contracts, which were drafted in German, provided for a wage of DEM 4,000 (EUR 2,045) for two months' work. Three months later, 122 of the Romanian workers had received only an advance on pay of DEM 1,000. Despite repeated assurances that the employees would be paid in full, Wollber failed to live up to these commitments. According to management, the company was experiencing cash-flow problems and intended to pay its workers with the proceeds of timber sales.
With the help of the local section of the CFDT union and a non-governmental organisation, Médecins du Monde, solidarity was organised with the unpaid workers. The German Federation of Trade Unions (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB) was contacted and, more importantly, summary legal proceedings were initiated at the Rochefort industrial tribunal (Conseil de prud'hommes).
The industrial tribunal case was heard on 6 October 2000. The plaintiffs' barrister stated their claims against Wollner, which involved non-payment of wages, overtime pay and the "precarious employment bonuses" payable in relation to fixed-term employment contracts, and non-compliance with compensatory rest periods. On 9 October, the tribunal upheld the workers' demands but placed a 60-hour ceiling on the overtime payable. As a result, Wollner was ordered to pay back-wages ranging from FRF 20,000 to FRF 24,000 per head.
As the company had failed to comply with the ruling a full two weeks after it was handed down, the government instructed the National Forestry Agency (Office national des forêts, ONF) to settle the wages of the Romanian workers based on the criteria set out in the court ruling.
According to a Charente-Maritime CFDT official: "this affair should act as an example. The storm revealed labour shortages and other foreign forestry workers risk suffering the same fate. French social standards must also be applied to foreign workers coming to work in France."