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Denmark – Atlanco fighting to retain Copenhagen metro contract

29 September 2014

A subsidiary of Irish-owned international recruitment firm Atlanco Rimec is fighting to retain a contract to supply workers to the construction of a new underground metro line in Copenhagen, reports The Sunday Times.

The company responsible for the expansion of Copenhagen’s metro network, Metroselskabet, has ordered sub-contractors building the city’s new line to sever all ties with Atlanco ApS, a subsidiary of Atlanco Rimec.

Henrik Plougmann Olsen, Chief Executive of Metroselskabet said that some of the documentation supplied by Atlanco did not meet the stands of a “social clause” between contractors and staff: “We make very clear demands that there should be proper conditions on the building sites and these demands are not flexible.”

“Therefore we need to crackdown hard if the rules of play are broken, and this is the consequence. I am very satisfied that the co-operation with Atlanco has stopped,” he added.

A spokeswoman for Atlanco, however, said that the company was continuing to work on the site. She said that there was no truth to the allegation that it had failed to comply with any terms and conditions of working on the metro project.

She said that Atlanco ApS had been "shocked to read the statement based on allegations issued by Metroselskabet”, adding that the statement requesting that Copenhagen Metro Team (CMT), the project’s main contractor, cease cooperation with Atlanco had been issued "without consultation with CMT or Atlanco".

The spokeswoman said that the move to make Atlanco leave the site came as a result of a documentary on Danish television. In May Atlanco Rimec was accused by Danish TV channel DR1 of keeping contractor blacklists. The television channel said that company had kept a secret register of workers for many years.  

The programme had generated negative publicity for the company, but had been withdrawn from the broadcaster's website after legal action from Atlanco.

A spokeswoman for CMT said that negotiations were continuing and it would not comment until they were completed: "Despite reports to the contrary, Atlanco ApS continues to provide workers to CMT under the terms of its existing contracts, with millions of euros of work yet to be completed.”