Migrant Workers Face safety case at European Datacentre Construction Sites

A 34-year-old electrical tester named Sandu suffered catastrophic injuries while working at a vast Google datacentre site in Saint-Ghislain, Belgium, this past March. Late in his ten-hour shift, he was instructed to perform a task involving the safety and integrity of electrical wiring. Despite the existence of protective equipment, the pressure to maintain speed led him to skip a time-consuming trip to the equipment room. When he linked the cables in the voltage room, a massive 400-volt, 12,000-amp arc flash struck him, causing immediate blindness. He was winding down the last 15 minutes of his shift at a vast Google datacentre site in Saint-Ghislain, Belgium, in March, when the call came in. According to the 34-year-old electrical tester had already worked almost 10 hours, but, Such last-minute jobs were normal: “I had no choice. He says, and people were waiting, so he decided not to retrieve the suit, the round trip would have added another 15 minutes to the job. According to once in the voltage room, Sandu, The managers confirmed the lines had been de-energised. Then, on the second test, while holding insulated tongs, he linked the cables. In milliseconds, 400 volts and 12,000 amps hit Sandu’s face and across the right side of his body. “I went completely blind,” he says. According to when doctors received him in the Grand Hôpital de Charleroi, he, He was placed in an induced coma for five days. A city two hours north of Stockholm, past timber-framed cottages and dense pine forests, lies a smooth road leading to one such site, o n the outskirts of Gävle.

Medical records indicate Sandu sustained second-degree burns to his face and neck, and third-degree burns across his right shoulder and fingers, covering 12% of his body. He spent a week in intensive care, later describing the pain as incomprehensible. According to Sandu, a Google regional director and representatives from his contractor, Dornan Engineering, visited him during his recovery. He claims he was told he was lucky to be alive. To date, local labour inspectors have closed their inquiry into the incident, finding no wrongdoing. According to he, His entire body felt like a “white-hot blister … It was so much pain. The human heart cannot comprehend it.”.

A spokesperson for Dornan Engineering stated the company remains dedicated to maintaining safe working conditions and complying with all applicable labour laws. Similarly, a Google representative noted that their supplier code of conduct requires all partners to uphold health and safety standards. These assurances come amidst a broader five-month investigation by journalists into conditions for migrant workers at major datacentre projects across Sweden, Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands. But unions say the push for tech sovereignty in Europe is becoming increasingly reliant on the exploitation of migrant workers.

Europe is currently undergoing its largest infrastructure surge in decades, with over 2,300 datacentres built or planned. Everything went as planned, in the first round. The largest infrastructure surge the continent has seen in decades, with more than 2,300 datacentres rapidly altering the physical and energy landscape of Europe (at least 500 of them in the UK) and hundreds more under construction, europe is in the midst of a datacentre boom.

This rapid expansion has been marred by reports of severe accidents.

In the UK alone, a contractor died at a site last year, and another fatality occurred in 2024 at a substation linked to Microsoft’s infrastructure. The remote clearing is part of a 130-hectare, €3bn expansion plan begun in June 2024 to scale up Microsoft’s AI datacentre infrastructure.

In Sweden, at a massive 130-hectare site near Gävle intended for Microsoft’s AI development, workers have reported significant safety and living concerns. This site involves at least 148 firms, including the Irish-owned company BenBau, which operates under the main contractor, Collen Construction. To date, no company or contractor appears to have been found liable for the accident. Including 28 direct subcontractors, it is among 148 firms working under Collen Construction at the Gävle site. For months, there has been a growing sense of outrage among Adrian*, 45, and his colleagues working for BenBau on the Microsoft site. According to days before publication of this investigation, the union Solidariska Byggare, representing the 70 Romanian workers at Microsoft’s site in Gävle, brokered a settlement with BenBau, which it, Will give workers back pay and allow unions access to sites.

Workers at the Gävle site have alleged overcrowded living quarters, describing facilities where 24 people share a kitchen and 14 men must use a single bathroom. Beyond the lack of space, there are fears regarding public health. Medical records show that one Romanian worker tested positive for active tuberculosis in February, with colleagues later exhibiting similar symptoms. Despite these reports, freedom of information requests to Swedish national authorities and the Public Health Agency indicated that no official outbreak had been registered. According to they showed evidence of crowded living quarters – 24 people to a kitchen, 14 men to a single bathroom – and say they have, Vermin infestations, broken ventilation systems and lack of heating during the sub-zero S.

Exploitative employment practices also remain a persistent issue. More than 30 workers provided hundreds of payslips to investigators, which appear to show employees working 50 to 60 hours per week without receiving overtime pay. Many workers expressed a deep fear of retaliation, noting that they had little choice but to accept the conditions. As one worker stated, people have been fired after refusing unsafe requests. Squalid living conditions, an unreported infectious outbreak, unpaid wages and exploitative employment practices, in dozens of interviews we found evidence of debilitating injuries. Such conditions can make the transmission of disease more likely.

James McCabe of the Unite the Union, which represents over 1.2 million workers, noted a recurring pattern at sites managed by major tech companies. He stated that whenever Irish datacentre contractors are involved, workers frequently report a lack of oversight and inadequate safety standards. Collen Construction stated it is committed to ensuring every site is a respectful place to work, while Microsoft emphasized that it sets clear requirements for contractors regarding health, safety, and the right to collective bargaining.