Foreigners at the construction site of Orlen's Olefina III. The prosecutor's office discontinues the investigation

The District Prosecutor's Office in Płock (Masovian Voivodeship) discontinued the investigation into the employment of foreigners by subcontractors at the construction site of the Olefiny III complex in Orlen. The issue of employee contributions was excluded for separate examination – PAP learned from the prosecutor's office on Monday.

The investigation into the employment of foreigners by subcontractors and their working conditions at the construction site of the Olefins III complex at Orlen's main production plant in Płock lasted just over a year.

This procedure was initiated pursuant to Art. 189a par. 1. The Penal Code, which concerns trafficking in human beings, because it contains the hallmarks of many acts, e.g. using people for work by misleading them or taking advantage of their helplessness, for example by not knowing the language.

– The investigation did not confirm that events described in the code as human trafficking occurred. The proceedings were discontinued due to the lack of elements of a prohibited act, Bartosz Maliszewski, spokesman for the Płock District Prosecutor's Office, told PAP on Monday.

He noted that from the evidence collected in the case, the issue relating to suspected “employee irregularities related to failure to pay contributions” was excluded for separate examination.

– This thread covers various entities employing employees, but does not concern Orlen itself – added prosecutor Maliszewski. As he explained, in the scope excluded from separate examination, there will be one proceeding.

The investigation into human trafficking, including recruitment, transport and transfer of foreigners to work on the construction of the Olefiny III complex through entities external to Orlen, including foreign ones, discontinued by the Płock District Prosecutor's Office, covered the period from December 2022 to September 2024. It was initiated after notifications of suspicion were received there. violating the labor rights of foreigners – from the National Labor Inspectorate (PIP) and from one natural person.

Finally, after carrying out verification activities, a decision was issued to combine all matters related to these notifications into one proceeding.

Earlier, in May 2024, PIP organized an information point at the construction site of the Olefins III complex at Orlen's main production plant in Płock, but none of the employees who used this form of contact filed a complaint at that time – such reports, regarding e.g. working conditions, began to arrive from foreigners later and there were several dozen of them. Then, in June 2024, as part of its inspections, the National Labor Inspectorate detected numerous violations of health and safety regulations at the construction site, “typical of construction works”, and fines and fines were imposed.

It was then found that, for example, the walls of the excavation where installation works were carried out were incorrectly secured, failure to protect against falls from the edge of the tank at the ladder entrance, as well as unsafe installation of system scaffolding and failure to use personal protective equipment, including the lack of protective helmets.

Orlen's main production plant is located in Płock – the largest refinery and petrochemical complex in Poland and one of the largest of this type in Europe. The contract to build the Olefiny III complex there was signed in June 2021 with Hyundai Engineering based in Seoul and Tecnicas Reunidas based in Madrid. The investment was planned to be completed in the first half of 2027.

In December 2024, the new management board of Orlen decided to stop the construction project of the Olefins III complex in its previous scope. Orlen then announced that the work would be carried out as part of the New Chemistry project, in a way that would enable rationalization of the necessary expenditure.

In 2023, when the construction of the Olefin III installation was already underway, a container town for workers was opened nearby, able to accommodate approximately 6,000 people. people. Orlen informed then, citing data from the investment contractor, that employees were and would be employed there, including: from South Korea and Spain, as well as from India, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey and Turkmenistan. (PAP)

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