On September 9, 2023, in the Mourmelon-le-Petit industrial zone, nearly 160 Ukrainian grape harvesters were evicted by the gendarmerie, in strict compliance with the prefectural order declaring the building where they were housed unsanitary and dangerous.
---- Among these seasonal workers were men, women, and also some teenagers who had come with their parents to work during the grape harvest. "The seasonal workers indicated they wanted to return to Ukraine afterward," the Marne prefecture services stated at the time. All were subsequently rehoused by their employer, some in the Marne department, others in the Aisne department. The owner of the unsanitary building had been formally notified by the prefecture, which ordered him to "make it inaccessible to any intrusion or illegal occupation."Several offenses
On November 26, 2025, the employer of these hundred or so workers from across Europe appeared before the Châlons criminal court. The business owner from Épernay is being prosecuted for several offenses: subjecting several dependent individuals to undignified living conditions, undeclared work involving several people, fraud, employing a foreign national without a work permit, issuing an inaccurate certificate, and using a falsified certificate. The prevention period runs from September 1st to September 12th, 2023.
Unlike the hearing on June 19th, 2025, the first criminal case in the "harvest of shame" of summer 2023, for which some fifty victims were identified, the civil parties' benches were empty on November 26th, 2025, in the Châlons courtroom. The Ukrainian workers who came to Champagne to cut grapes for eight hours a day in the Marne vineyards have long since left.
However, before returning in mid-September 2023 to their war-torn country or to neighboring Poland, where some have found refuge, they filed a complaint against their employer, a wine service provider in Épernay.
All testified to the appalling conditions in which they were herded for several days in the Mourmelon-le-Petit industrial zone: without drinking water or ventilation in a dwelling riddled with mold and leaks, lacking proper electrical wiring and a connection to the sewer system, and infested with insects and rodents.
All this for a pittance of a wage, calculated by the agricultural social security fund (MSA) at 18 cents per kilo of harvested grapes. "These are people who have been kept in a state of absolute financial insecurity and exploited because they are simply trying to survive," denounced the lawyer for one of the plaintiffs.
Former Partner at the Heart of the Hearing
In the dock, the defendant, legal representative of the service provider Viti-compétences, based in Épernay and operating since 2020, claims he only discovered these appalling living conditions on September 7, 2023, when the Regional Health Agency (ARS) and the labor inspectorate came to confirm that the building was "contrary to human dignity." He quickly blames his former partner. This third party has not been prosecuted by the public prosecutor's office in this case. Since this associate, who no longer even had an employment contract at the time of the events, was also in charge of the administrative side of the business, the defendant also accuses him of being responsible for the inaccurate pre-employment declarations.
The defendant, extremely aggressive in his exchanges with the deputy public prosecutor and admitting only to "a lack of vigilance," is also being prosecuted for employing foreign workers without work permits and for undeclared work by declaring Polish workers (who would have been operating within the Schengen Area), rather than Ukrainian workers, in the pre-employment declarations.
Furthermore, he is accused of defrauding the MSA (French agricultural social security system) of EUR206,000 by underreporting wages and therefore social security contributions. "By making these false declarations, he gave credence to a lie, which constitutes embezzlement," argued the deputy prosecutor before requesting a three-year prison sentence, two years of which would be suspended, along with, among other things, a permanent ban on managing a company.
The verdict
On January 28, the Châlons-en-Champagne criminal court sentenced him to two years in prison. This sentence exceeded the prosecution's request of three years, one of which would be served. He is also prohibited from managing a commercial company and banned for ten years from purchasing real estate or commercial property. His company, Viti Compétences, was fined EUR350,000.
Regarding the civil action, the defendant will have to pay EUR206,000 to the MSA (Agricultural Social Security Fund), EUR3,000 for damages suffered, and an additional EUR1,000 for legal fees to the Comité Champagne (Champagne Committee), as well as EUR1,000 and EUR800 to the CGT Champagne inter-union group.
Camille, OCL Reims, February 2026
In the April issue, the appeal trial of a second case during the 2023 grape harvest.
http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4667
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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