China-Cheap-Shops: Financial Police Uncovered Violations in Vienna Warehouse

In August, the financial police uncovered extensive violations of labor and social insurance regulations during an inspection in a warehouse in Vienna-Floridsdorf, as the Ministry of Finance announced on Tuesday.

This involves a warehouse of Clevy Ltd., as the daily newspaper "Der Standard" reported on Monday. The company, based in Farnham, England, with holdings in the Cayman Islands and Hong Kong, operates in several countries from France, through Switzerland, to Slovenia.

Such companies repeatedly attract attention throughout the EU, the ministry further stated. Of the 14 people encountered during this inspection, only three were directly employed by the company - one of them, however, was not properly insured. This person had completed a trial day, according to Clevy's explanation.

Financial Police Target Vienna Company

The other 11 people were employed through the Graz subcontractor Wherhouse Eleni, but only two were properly registered. The majority of these employees stated that they worked as freelancers for an hourly wage of 9 to 10 euros, which was, however, considered false self-employment.

Since the warehouse workers were working only with residence permits from other EU countries, the police were also notified. In addition to immigration police measures, there was also a criminal complaint under the Social Insurance Act against the company and the subcontractor. The latter must also answer under the Foreign Employment Act. In the summer, the labor inspectorate also found numerous occupational safety violations at the warehouse.

Strict Controls

"We cannot afford tolerance towards tax fraud," commented Finance Minister Markus Marterbauer (SPÖ) on the inspection. "Fraud must not pay off, it is a question of justice." Not only are the employees of these companies the ones who suffer, said Labor Minister Korinna Schumann (SPÖ), but also those businesses that adhere to the rules.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.