Brno, Feb 3 (CTK) – The Czech Constitutional Court (US) on Wednesday complied with a complaint lodged by 19 Vietnamese who worked in forests and were not duly paid for their work, due to which the police will have to reopen the case of fraud they at first shelved.
This is the second analogous US ruling meted out recently. The first related to Romanians and Slovaks.
The court ruled that the police investigation had been sluggish and the state attorney’s office had not paid the relevant attention to the case either.
The US ruled on the case that occurred in 2009-2010. Executives of the Affumicata firm reportedly submitted “contracts on education” to the Vietnamese who believed these were work contracts. Subsequently, the Vietnamese did some forest work in the Czech Republic, but were never paid the money in the full height.
The financial police shelved the case of fraud, arguing that there was no registration of the employees’ work. They said the police were unable to judge whether the claim was rightful.
A complaint about the police decision was subsequently dismissed by a state attorney’s office.
A month ago, the US delivered a similar ruling relating to the complaint filed by a group of complainants from Slovakia and Romania whose employers had not paid them the agreed salary and had not ensured adequate working conditions.
In 2011, there was a rally against the abuse and exploitation of foreign workers over the case in Prague.
The foreigners say they were forced to execute difficult work for 10-12 hours a day, having received only a part of their salaries and being exposed to insults and humiliation in difficult working conditions.
