Hundreds of Adecco France temporary workers have reportedly made complaints about a €49.85 withdrawal from their bank accounts from a company unaffiliated with Adecco. It comes after Adecco France was reportedly recently a victim of a computer hack.

Le Figaro reports that a Facebook group page was created on 8 November with more than 1,000 members and lists testimonials from all over France. Many of those in the group made a complaint about a bank withdrawal from a company called Solfex France.

Adecco France issued a statement, “We immediately launched an internal investigation because the protection of the personal data of all our employees is a priority. All our teams are fully mobilised to understand the origin of this situation.”

“To date, no link has been established between these fraudulent direct debits made by a third-party company and the missions of our temporary workers,” Adecco France stated. “We are continuing the internal investigation and will cooperate with the relevant authorities. We put in place all the measures to best support our temporary workers. We would like to remind you that Adecco never makes any direct debit from the bank account. The urgency for the victims is therefore to oppose these direct debits with their banking establishment.”

In an email to its employees, Adecco advised to ‘contact your bank directly’ and added that ‘We are continuing the internal investigation and will work with the relevant authorities’.

Adecco France added, “The fraudulent direct debit may have a name such as ‘PRLV SOLFEX France SASU” or “PRLV COT NOV SOLFEX France SASU’, a company unrelated to Adecco France.”

Trade union CFDT also published a statement on the bank fraud.

“We recommend that you check your accounts, get closer to your bank and your agency if you were a victim. To date, several thousand employees are affected,” it added.

The union also stated, “To date, no link has been established between these fraudulent debits made by a third party company and the missions of our temporary workers", we nevertheless deplore the lack of responsiveness and leadership as well as the probable future consequences. The CFDT would like an extraordinary meeting to be set up as soon as possible. We would like to hear from the Director of IT Services, the person in charge of the crisis unit and the appointment of an independent IT security expert in order to carry out an audit.”

Union CGT Interim also published several posts on Adecco France following the hack and the complaints.

“The CGT Adecco seized the management of Adecco to summon him to explain himself and to take drastic measures for the protection of data, and this from Saturday 12 November,” CGT stated. “Following the hack suffered by Adecco, several employees suffered fraudulent debits from employee bank accounts.”

“When you are precarious, €49.85 counts,” the union added. “Obviously, not for the leaders of Adecco which were slow to communicate, and it is the press which seized the subject.”

CGT Interim added that it is considering various actions to accelerate the movement of reimbursement of the sums withdrawn and the securing of data.

Staffing Industry Analysts also reached out to the Adecco Group for further comment, but the company had not yet responded.