Daily News

View All News

Randstad accuse former CSE officials of embezzlement

08 April 2024

A public prosecutor's office in France has opened a preliminary investigation into suspicions of embezzlement by elected officials of the social and economic committee (CSE) of Randstad Inhouse Services in France, reports Le Monde. Established in La Plaine-Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), this CSE is the largest of Randstad’s in France, in terms of workforce covered (700 permanent employees and 25,000 temporary workers) and allocated budget.

Under French law, a company has to set up a CSE when it employs at least 11 employees during 12 consecutive months. The CSE replaces the elected employee representatives in the company merging all the employee representative bodies, staff representatives, works council and health, safety and working conditions committee.

The Bobigny judicial court in France confirmed that the court procedure follows at least two complaints filed with the public prosecutor's office by the management of Randstad France. The Bobigny public prosecutor's office specifies that it has contacted the police "to collect more information on the facts reported" and decide on their classification.

The two complaints targeted offenses of “breach of trust”, and “obstruction of the functioning of the CSE”. According to Agence France-Press (AFP), one of the complaints also denounced threats and intimidation against members of the CSE who did not support these alleged practices.

The complaints accused a group of thirteen staff representatives, out of the 34 in this CSE, of being suspected of having benefited from “an illicit system of reimbursement of expense reports”, mainly centred on fictitious travel expenses.

The management of Randstad and the CSE accuse the former elected officials, who are no longer employees of the company, of having participated in "serious dysfunctions" of the CSE and in particular the organisation of "reimbursements of fictitious travel expenses" of which they were the beneficiaries for "totally disproportionate and unjustified" amounts allowing certain elected officials to receive from €4,000 to €12,000 per month", according to one of the complaints.

Management listed "trips declared to establishments that have no longer existed in the company for several years", "travels on Sundays and public holidays" or "over distances that are unworkable over the periods concerned".

Randstad management told AFP that it claims to have been informed of "malfunctions" before being forced to request through "judicial channels" the communication of certain accounting documents which "highlighted particularly suspicious management and use by certain members of the budget CSE".

SIA also contacted Randstad for further comment.