The giant of temporary work and recruitment, Randstad, may have been the victim of one of the biggest frauds committed against a works council in France. The damage is estimated to exceed one million euros. According to Le Monde, the public prosecutor’s office in Bobigny has opened a preliminary investigation into suspicions of embezzlement by elected officials of the social and economic committee (CSE) of Randstad Inhouse Services. This CSE, located in La Plaine-Saint-Denis, is the largest within the Dutch group in France in terms of covered staff (700 permanent employees and 25,000 temporary workers) and allocated budget.
This criminal procedure, confirmed by the judicial court of Bobigny, follows at least two complaints filed with the prosecutor’s office by the management of Randstad France (on December 1, 2023) and the CSE targeted by the fraud (on January 26). The Bobigny prosecutor’s office has called in the police “to gather more information on the reported facts” and decide on their classification. The two complaints, which Le Monde has been able to consult, target the same offenses of “organized embezzlement”, “obstruction of the CSE’s operation”, and “threats and intimidation against a victim”.
These complaints name a group of thirteen employee representatives out of the thirty-four in this CSE, suspected of having benefited from an “illegal system of reimbursement of expenses”, mostly focusing on fictitious or abusive travel expenses between 2021 and 2023. Some of the facts were revealed in July 2023 by the website L’Informé. These delegates, all temporary workers from various trade union backgrounds, were dismissed from their positions at the end of 2023. Five of them are believed to be the main beneficiaries of the system implemented, including the former treasurer of the CSE and his deputy.
Randstad France explains to Le Monde that the issue revolves around “the existence of a declarative and unjustified system of reimbursement by the CSE for travel expenses in the form of mileage allowances”. The company states that a little over 1.4 million euros were reimbursed in less than two years, from 2022 to 2023, to “a few members of the CSE” for mileage allowances. This amounts to approximately 2.7 million kilometers traveled by this small number of officials just between January 2022 and June 2023 – equivalent to 385 times around France, passing closely by the coastlines and borders. “Some members of the CSE received up to several tens, or even hundreds of thousands of euros in reimbursement for travel expenses per year,” specifies Randstad France.
