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Austrian jailed for illegally employing East Europeans
Page 6
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by CM's German correspondent The Austrian haulier at the cetre of the 'social dumping' scan. dal that has rocked the Luxembourg and Austrian transport industries has been jailed for six months and fined €9,900 ( CM4-10 April).
Karl Kralowetz, the director of Luxembourg firm United Continent Lines (UCL), was found guilty by a Luxembourg court of employing hundreds of East European truck drivers on illegal wages and helping them to break tachograph laws.
Now he is likely to be hauled before a German court to face charges of srnuggling hundreds of East Europeans into the EU with false papers and employing them illegally. According to the Luxembourg prosecutor's office, the two countries have agreed that the disgraced haulier will be extradited to face the extra charges.
Even though the trucks ran in the Kralowetz livery with the firm's e-mail address on its trailers, the Austrian firm Kralowetz Gmbh, run by Karl Kralowetz's brothers Reiner and Martin, denies any connection with UCL.
A spokesman stresses that its tanker operation is an entirely separate entity from the Luxembourg firm.
Customs officials and the police investigated UCL in the Luxembourg town of Eschi Alzette and found evidence that its drivers were breaking tachograph and hours rules. Tachographs were either missing or had been tampered with; drivers from Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia had been at the wheel for up to 26 hours at a stretch with no rest periods.
Typical monthly wages for the East European drivers were between (1,000 and €1,125; many of them assumed that Karl Kralowetz had paid taxes and made social security contributions. In fact former UCL employees told the Luxembourg court that the drivers did not receive holiday or sick pay. Money was even deducted from their wages for breakdowns, accidents not caused by them and business calls on their cab phones.
Witnesses also testified that Karl Kralowetz abetted employees in giving false testimony during official inspections.
He denied the charges and repeatedly spoke of a "conspiracy" against him, claiming that he had given well-paid work to hundreds of truck drivers who were earning far less at home or w unemployed.
Now the Austrian so security department has covered that 70 Austr hauliers have underpaid tt truck drivers by a total of se million euros during the p two years, The Luxembourg gove ment has responded restricting foreign transp companies' right to set up Luxembourg—it also plans tighten up social sem checks on foreign drivers.