Are Ikea and Budecon Endangering Lives to Open Store on Time?

Workers at the Port Lodz construction site are afraid. The site of a shopping mall centered around IKEA is being built by Budecon construction company. That's because quite big cracks appeared in about 50 columns holding up the parking garage and workers are afraid the terrain may be quite unstable.

Workers who heard and saw how the cracks appear are extremely concerned and say that such things are not normal. This happened in December and, they received a notice not to work near the garage. Since then, they haven't.

But IKEA wants its building completed and there may be severe contractual penalties for Budecon if it is late in delivering the site.

Despite the fact that the cracks look quite serious and Budecon even temporarily suspended work there, neither Budecon nor Ikea informed the Building Inspector. Only after workers complained and contacted outside parties was the Inspectorate informed.

However the director of the project informed subcontractors that they must "extend the working time of their employees" to make up for lost time and get the site completed on time. He threatened everyone with fines if they failed to force the workers to complete the project.

Workers are furious. They neither want to be forced to work unpaid overtime or work in potentially life-threatening conditions. It is unclear whether the authorities will intervene on behalf of the workers or if they will take direct action.