Workers allege widespread forgery in Slovenian branch of German firm, but legal action yields one conviction

A group of over 40 current and former employees of the Maribor branch of German multinational SSI Schaefer allege systematic fraud between 2014 and 2020. They claim their signatures were forged on documents related to work assignments abroad, and that their payslips and daily allowances were manipulated to minimize their earnings.

The employees have provided notarized statements asserting that their documents were falsified to reduce payments for wages, overtime, and daily allowances. This alleged scheme aimed to shortchange workers sent on assignments outside Slovenia. The scale of the alleged forgery is substantial, with the employees pointing to thousands of pages of documentation and over 5,000 falsified documents.

Despite submitting over ten criminal complaints, accompanied by more than 10 kilograms of evidence including forged documents, the legal process has yielded limited results. While police and prosecutors have received extensive documentation, and one accused individual confessed and received a conditional sentence last July, the employees express frustration with the response from state authorities. They contend that the volume of evidence should have led to more significant accountability.