[UPDATE] Protest by 25 drivers in the Netherlands is over. MBC and FNV give their versions of events

Update: 27 October, 8:30

The drivers’ protest at the car park in Venlo has come to an end. According to the official statement from MBC Trans and MBC Development, an agreement with the last group of drivers was reached on 20 October, and the last drivers left the car park on 21 October. The companies say the agreement covered 22 drivers operating their fleet.

MBC’s position: “We were the victim, not the perpetrator”

MBC stresses that the drivers were not direct employees of the group’s companies, but were employed by the temporary employment agency Super Job. According to MBC, it was the agency that was responsible for hiring the drivers, settling their work and paying their wages.

The companies say they met their financial obligations towards Super Job and have documents confirming the transfers made.

MBC points out that, although it was not the employer, it got involved in resolving the dispute and restoring normal transport operations. Under the agreement:

• drivers were paid €100 for each day actually worked in September and October for which – according to MBC – they had not received wages from Super Job,
• the companies point out that the money was transferred to bank accounts indicated by the drivers, not handed over in cash at the car park,
• MBC announces further steps to clarify who is responsible for the situation, including with regard to Super Job.

The position of FNV and RTDD

FNV-Stichting VNB and the Road Transport Due Diligence (RTDD) foundation, which were involved in clarifying the situation in Venlo, also shared their findings with our editorial team.

FNV confirms that the protest has ended, the car park is empty and all loads have been delivered. According to the organisation, none of the protesting drivers will continue to work for the companies involved in the case.

FNV and RTDD also confirm that MBC paid the invoices issued by Super Job, while the drivers reported that they had not received the wages they were owed.

Richard Vervoorn of FNV-Stichting VNB pointed to the unusual role of the Super Job agency itself. According to FNV, it was a representative of the agency who contacted FNV on 12 October about the planned work stoppage and the possibility of parking the vehicles safely in Venlo. FNV says the agency later became unreachable.

RTDD’s findings also show that the loads held up in Venlo were organised by LKW Walter, and that the drivers were carrying goods for companies including Heineken, Lidl, Hornbach, Volkswagen and Red Bull. RTDD contacted some of these companies about the delivery delays.

FNV and RTDD are also critical of the way the cooperation between MBC and Super Job was organised. In their view, the arrangements on compliance with the rules, including the Mobility Package, were not clear enough, and MBC did not exercise sufficient oversight over the protection of drivers’ rights.

The organisations also criticise LKW Walter, accusing the forwarder of not sufficiently checking whether the carrier complied with the rules.

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Text published on 23 October:

Drivers carrying out international transport work for MBC Trans say they went without pay for three months: July, August and September. Their claims have been estimated at approximately €150,000.

According to Zero.pl, the protest began at a parking area in Germany, where around 25 truck combinations were stopped. German police intervened, and the carrier managed to recover some of the vehicles.

Some of the drivers later moved to Venlo in the Netherlands, where the FNV trade union took an interest in the case.

The sister of one of the protesting drivers told Trans.INFO that around 25 Belarusian drivers were staying at the guarded parking area at Truckstop Venlo and demanding payment of their outstanding wages. The Road Transport Due Diligence Foundation is reportedly involved alongside FNV.

She also described the difficult circumstances facing some of the drivers and their families. According to her account, the families had been without income from the drivers’ work for several months. These claims were provided by one side in the dispute and had not been independently verified by the editorial team at the time of publication.

The dispute quickly spread to TikTok

The case soon appeared on social media. Videos posted on TikTok showed drivers accusing MBC Trans of failing to pay their wages.

However, there is currently no independent basis for assigning responsibility for the missing payments to the carrier.

That distinction also matters to transport companies. A dispute whose underlying facts have not yet been independently established can spread across social media within hours and begin to affect a company’s reputation.

Who employed the drivers?

Reports by Zero.pl and MBC Trans’s account of the matter suggest that the drivers were not direct employees of the transport company. They were reportedly employed by Warsaw-based temporary staffing agency Super Job and assigned to work for the carrier.

Damian Nartowski, a lawyer at WN Legal Wątrobiński Nartowski who is advising MBC Trans, told Zero.pl that the company has bank transfer confirmations corresponding to the invoices issued by the agency.

Trans.INFO asked both MBC Trans and Super Job for comment. Neither organisation had responded by the time of publication.

The dispute disrupted the fleet’s operations

Reputational risk is only one aspect of the problem. The dispute also began to disrupt the carrier’s day-to-day transport operations.

HaloŁuków.pl reported that some drivers had switched off the telematics systems in their vehicles. As a result, the carrier allegedly lost the ability to monitor the location of some trucks and their loads.

The wage dispute therefore affected the company’s ability to conduct its transport operations.

Every immobilised truck combination creates a risk of delays, missed jobs and additional operating costs. With a fleet of more than 100 trucks, the loss of several dozen combinations could significantly reduce the company’s operational capacity.

What temporary-work rules say

Information from Poland’s State Labour Inspectorate on temporary employment states that the staffing agency is the formal employer of a temporary worker and is legally responsible for paying wages. The user employer has a separate set of duties, including work organisation, working-time records and health and safety.

This is the general statutory rule, but it does not by itself determine the final financial or legal responsibility in this particular case.

The regulations identify the formal employer, but they do not explain how the contractual settlements between the carrier and the intermediary were handled or why the money did not reach the drivers.

The situation nevertheless highlights an important risk-management issue: a transport company may remain operationally dependent on an intermediary functioning properly, even when the company itself has settled its invoices in line with the contract.

Driver outsourcing also creates operational risk

The main lesson is not that carriers should abandon driver outsourcing or stop using temporary staffing agencies. Rather, the case shows that this model places part of the risk outside the carrier’s direct control. When a staffing agency and drivers become embroiled in a pay dispute, the consequences can quickly extend to the fleet, ongoing jobs and customer relationships.

For transport companies, the cost of the service and access to drivers are only part of the decision. The intermediary’s reliability, a clear allocation of responsibilities, properly documented settlements and procedures for handling a sudden dispute are equally important.

In the MBC Trans case, payment confirmations relating to invoices issued by the agency are among the key documents cited by the carrier in support of its account of events. This illustrates that when a company works with an external labour provider, settlement records can have accounting, operational and reputational significance.

The case also demonstrates a second risk: an operational conflict can spread rapidly on social media before the responsibility of each party has been independently established.