The Paris Court of Appeal’s investigating chamber has requested further information regarding a longstanding discrimination investigation against the Adecco Group and has requested the indictment of two of its agency heads as well as the indictment of Adecco Group as a legal person, according to Romandie.

Adecco has faced recurring problems with the accusation of racism in both Belgian and French courts relating to incidents dating back to 2000/2001.

A magistrate had previously been appointed to investigate the Adecco Group over discrimination and concluded that the investigations had "not made it possible to establish with certainty the commission of a discriminatory act". He considered that "the existence and recourse" to a specific classification of "black temporary workers…could not be clearly determined".

However, the Paris Court of Appeal’s investigating chamber stated, that it was ‘very probable’ that Adecco and two of its heads participated as instigators or accomplice in the commission of offenses of discrimination in employment and computerized storage of nominative data revealing directly or indirectly ‘racial origins.’ The Court of Appeal has requested an indictment of the two Adecco agency heads named as Commercial Director, Mathieu Charbon, and ex-Regional Director, Olivier Poulin.

SOS Racisme, an antiracist organisation founded in France, lodged a complaint in March 2001 against Adecco which was working with Ile-de-France Agency Catering and Hotels, after being alerted by a former recruitment officer of the agency who suggested a ranking of candidates with a code "PR IV" to specify people of color. According to him, this code was intended to grant or to refuse certain missions to these candidates.Romandie reported that an Adecco regional leader responded with a statement, "Our files are not discriminating.” However, the Adecco spokesperson added that it does face "implicit or explicit requests" from catering companies.

In 2009, a judge had served the end of his investigation with a dismissal. But the Paris Court of Appeal ordered new hearings in 2010. However, no indictment was announced in this case.

Staffing Industry Analysts reached out to Adecco for a comment but did not receive a response before publication of this news.