The Antwerp court delivered its judgment on 28 June in the case of the complaint filed by the labour auditor against PostNL Belgium three years ago.
The issue was whether PostNL Belgium had behaved as an employer of the workers of the delivery companies involved in the affair, and/or whether it had abused its position as principal vis-à-vis of these delivery companies. In 2021, the labor prosecutor considered that the infractions observed among some of its 220 subcontractors were indeed the responsibility of Post Nl, via its subsidiaries PostNl Cargo and PostNl Pakketten, companies against which it had requested fines of, respectively, 4 .4 million and 20 million euros.
The Antwerp court acquitted PostNL of all charges and the directors of PostNL Belgium were also fully exonerated. PostNL welcomes this judgment in a press release, while pointing out that this trial has had, since 2021, “a significant impact both on individual employees and on the organization as a whole, due to the nature of the allegations and the ‘continuing uncertainty.’ On the other hand, subcontracting companies are hit with fines, sometimes suspended. On the union side, we regret this court decision. “Chain liability, in particular the liability of main contractors towards their subcontractors, is not sufficiently legally regulated in Belgium,” underlines the ACV union.
