We were slaves, say builders of QM2A GROUP of immigrant workers has complained of being subjected to "slave labour" in a French shipyard aboard the Queen Mary 2, the largest and most luxurious ocean liner ever constructed.
There were cries of admiration from sightseers lining the dock when the 150,000-ton ship, which is as tall as a 23-storey building, steamed out of Saint-Nazaire on Thursday for three days of sea trials off the Brittany coast.
The stocky red funnel can be seen for miles around, and with several swimming pools, a planetarium, shopping arcades and glass lifts, the vessel is being. hailed as a marvel of modern engineering.
BUT for the Indian workers, this flagship of the American-owned Cunard shipping line is a source of deep bitterness. They were hired by a subcontractor for the shipyard to put in air-conditioning and even though their toil was rewarded with appallingly low wages, they were happy to find jobs far from home. Last week they regretted ever getting involved as they found themselves locked in a battle over wages.
"What am I going to tell my children," said Gopalan Satheesan, 44, from Kerala, "when they ask me, “Why did you go to France, a rich country, to come back empty-handed?” We want to return honorably. Not just with our suitcases."
The dispute has not affected the impressive pace of construction, which started in January last year. The 1,132ft ship will be delivered on time to Southampton in December for a naming ceremony in which the Queen is expected to follow a time-honoured tradition by cracking a bottle of champagne on the bow. The maiden voyage, to New York, is scheduled for January 12.
Yet the dispute over money has embarrassed Chantiers de 1'Atlantique, France's biggest shipbuilder, which last week told The Sunday Times it had been insisting since August that its hundreds of subcontractors sign a charter forcing them to respect French labour law.
The Indians were hired by Avco, a company created in France by a subsidiary of Tata, the giant Indian corporation. "We were promised a monthly salary of €1,052 [£728]," said Satheesan. "But Avco deducted rent, electricity fees, 'food and French taxes that left us with pay of just €300 [£208]."
Union activists, glimpsing an example of French industry trying to shave costs by employing cheap foreign labour, have denounced what they see as blatant social injustice. "It is modern slavery," said Andre Fadda, an official of the General Labour Confederation (CGT), which is involved in talks with Avco in Saint-Nazaire.
He said foreign employees of other subcontractors have also had trouble. In August Romanian workers went on strike over allegedly unpaid wages and Greek workers returned home claiming that 60% of their wages were owed.
The Indians had their passports retained, by Avco when they arrived in France. Overtime, meanwhile was said to have been paid at well below the standard rates in France.
“It is an outrage that workers can be treated so shabbily treated in this day and age," said Fadda.
After the Indians launched their protest in March, Avco eventually agreed to pay them €926 [£641] a month and returned their passports.
In August, however, after publicity about the dispute in the local press Chantiers de 1'Atlantique terminated its contract with Avco. The Indians were left on the street.
The CGT, which is helping to house and feed the workers, argues that the Indians' original contract with Avco was supposed to have ran until next May and is demanding a six-month severance package.
Avco is offering September's salary, a bus ticket to Paris and a plane fare to Delhi.
“The question raised now is what is best for the Indian workers," said Mare Ameil, a delegate from me French labour ministry. "The majority are opposed to any solution in which they would lose money but others want to go home."
Philippe Casse, a spokesman for 'Chantiers de 1'Attantique, expressed sympathy for the Indians but blamed Avco for their plight and said only three out of 800 subcontractors had caused problems.
According to Casse, up to 80% of the work on the Queen Mary 2 was subcontracted hut only 8% of the workers were recruited outside Europe. Far from being a way of dodging obligations to workers, subcontracting was a necessity, given me wide rage of disciplines outside me shipyard's technical abilities, he said.
For Satheesan, however, being left on the street was the last thing he expected in France. "I have worked abroad before, in Dubai, in Bahrain and in Saudi Arabia, and there were no problems. Here where there are democratic laws we have a struggle to defend our rights."
By Matthew Campbell, Paris