Waste sorting: six undocumented workers hired by the Suez group after their mobilization

The Suez group will hire six former undocumented employees of a now-liquidated subcontractor, NTI. This was announced Friday by the CGT union and the group's management. These workers worked in waste sorting centers in the Île-de-France region.

For nearly two years, 24 former NTI employees have been demanding permanent employment and regularization. Supported by the CGT Île-de-France and CGT Transport unions, they worked for several major groups in the sector, including Veolia , Paprec , Urbaser, and Suez .

About ten people were hired by Veolia after the occupation of a sorting center in Paris. Thirteen others began a protest movement on July 1 near the Suez headquarters, in the La Défense district.

Suez proposed six new hires as part of a settlement agreement. The number of hires, which fell short of the CGT's initial demands, was "the only possible point of discussion to reach an agreement," said CGT delegate Ali Chaligui.

"We don't have the luxury of refusing," he continued, referring to a mixed victory, as the employees were ultimately not forced to abandon their legal actions. They had initiated proceedings before the Paris industrial tribunal, which is due to examine the case at the end of September.

" Suez was sensitive to the difficulties faced by these people and wanted to seek and propose solutions, including the promise of hiring some of them," the group said in a written statement.

According to the company, these hirings are consistent with a situation of "one-off and limited" recourse to these NTI personnel, liquidated in 2023. Suez claims to have ended its collaboration with this subcontractor "as soon as it became aware of these illegal practices and practices contrary to the group's ethics."

The job offers are conditional on obtaining residence permits. Suez argues that these offers will support undocumented workers' applications for regularization with the administration.

As part of its "duty of vigilance", Suez assures that it has strengthened its procedures and controls to "prevent any failure".