Milan consulate – More than 100 foreign laborers have signed settlement deals to receive payouts following reports of systematic labor exploitation at the U.S. consulate construction site in Milan.
In a Milan hotel this week. a line of men quietly transformed months of alleged exploitation into a path toward stability. Over Tuesday and Wednesday. 115 laborers—many hailing from India. Nigeria. Kenya. and Bangladesh—signed settlement agreements that finally put figures on the years of unpaid overtime and deducted wages they endured while building the new U.S. consulate.
The deals provide for individual payouts averaging 45,000 euros ($50,400), with some workers receiving as much as 90,000 euros ($101,000). For Dilip Ram. a 43-year-old mason from the Indian state of Bihar who has spent over two years on the site. the significance is measured in the support he can now offer his family back home. “Things are better now than before… we get more rest now,” Ram said after signing his documents. “Because the workers had troubles, that’s why this settlement has been applied.”.
This payout is the result of a 31-million-euro (nearly $35 million) settlement reached last month with the Alabama-based contractor, Caddell Construction. While the agreement mandates that individual payments be delivered within 30 days and requires workers to forgo disparaging the company. the settlement explicitly notes it is not an admission of liability from Caddell. Francesco Brigatti. the court-appointed administrator overseeing the site’s return to legal compliance. confirmed that the total compensation includes unpaid overtime. reimbursement for illegally deducted housing costs. and damages championed by Prosecutor Paolo Storari. Notably, the damage component makes up 60–70% of the overtime total, a rare margin in European labor disputes.
The scale of the exploitation uncovered by Italian authorities is substantial. Prosecutors describe a system where laborers were paid less than $2 an hour and denied overtime despite working up to 10 hours a day. six days a week. Investigators allege these workers faced threats and were denied medical care when injured, all while being docked pay for housing. Many. particularly those from India. arrived in Italy already burdened by a 5. 000-euro ($5. 600) debt paid to recruiters. though officials noted the settlement cannot address the initial recruitment phase in India.
The administrative reach of this case is broad. Beyond the 115 who signed this week. nearly 480 workers are expected to receive compensation. including 300 still on-site and others who have since left Italy. Caddell, a major contractor for U.S. diplomatic outposts worldwide, is also required to pay 11.2 million euros ($12.5 million) into Italian social security and injury insurance funds. Under the deal, the workers are also being granted permits to remain in Italy for work outside the consulate project.
The sequence of events remains under intense scrutiny. While Caddell previously stated in June that it was cooperating with Italian authorities and reviewing its subcontractors. the underlying criminal investigation remains open. Two managers currently face house arrest on charges of extortion and facilitating illegal immigration. The U.S. State Department has confirmed its own internal investigation is ongoing in cooperation with Italian law enforcement.
For those who spent years effectively silenced behind the consulate walls, the signing event marks a bittersweet conclusion. Trinofe Radogna. an organizer with the Fenealuil construction union. recalled how they were initially barred from the site under erroneous claims of diplomatic immunity. “We have never encountered a labor-exploitation system on this scale,” Radogna said. “Here workers’ dignity was lost: they found themselves without accommodation, without meals, and they were already starting at a disadvantage.”.
Milan consulate labor abuse Caddell Construction Italy foreign workers settlement