On a $350 million U.S. consulate project meant to showcase American power and values, foreign workers say they were treated like cheap, disposable labor earning less than $2 an hour.
Story Snapshot
- Foreign workers claim they earned under $2 an hour building the new U.S. consulate in Milan despite written promises of much higher pay.
- Italian prosecutors arrested two site managers on suspicion of labor exploitation and say some workers took home as little as 500 euros a month.
- Pay stubs reviewed by reporters show heavy deductions for housing and food and an hourly rate listed at about 1.55 euros.
- The U.S. State Department and main contractor say they are cooperating with investigators, but have not yet publicly released full payroll records.
What Workers Say Happened on the Milan Consulate Site
Associated Press reporters say they interviewed five former workers from Kenya and India who helped build the new American consulate in Milan, a project worth about $350 million.[1][2] These workers said they were promised what they understood as fair wages, including offers of around 2,300 to 2,500 euros a month, close to $3,000.[1][2][3] Instead, one Indian worker showed a pay slip that listed an hourly wage of just 1.55 euros, about $1.80, and total monthly pay around 500 euros after deductions.[1][2] All five workers said they were later fired and claimed this happened without clear cause.[1]
Union officials in Italy helped connect these workers with reporters and lawyers at a trade union center where they were seeking help.[1] The workers asked to remain unnamed, saying they feared retaliation and wanted to protect the investigation.[1][3] One Kenyan worker described working ten hours a day, Monday through Saturday, while living in housing tied to the job.[3] He said that when he raised questions about pay, managers warned him to accept the terms or risk being sent back home.[3] These accounts have now fed into a wider criminal probe by Italian authorities.[1][2]
How Prosecutors and Documents Back Up Parts of the Story
Italian prosecutors in Milan launched a probe about six months before the latest reports, focusing on roughly 70 workers, mostly from India, tied to the consulate job.[1][2] They accuse the main contractor, Caddell Construction, of illegally deducting room and board from wages and forcing ten-hour days, six days a week.[1][2] Prosecutors say some workers ended up with only about 500 euros a month after these deductions, far below what they say was promised.[1][2] Two managers were arrested on suspicion of labor exploitation, with officials stating that both were attempting to leave Italy.[1][2]
Associated Press journalists say they reviewed employment letters and pay stubs that appear to support parts of the workers’ claims.[1][2][3] These pay records show large monthly charges of about 510 euros for housing and more than 300 euros for food, which ate up much of the workers’ pay.[1][2] Union experts told reporters the documents do not match usual Italian payroll formats and that they have not fully verified their origin, so some details remain unproven.[1][3] Still, the numbers on those stubs leave a big gap between what workers say they were promised and what they actually received.[1][2]
How Authorities and the Contractor Are Responding
Officials say work on the consulate has continued but now takes place under court supervision while the investigation moves forward.[1][2] According to reports, workers on the site today are no longer having room and board deducted, are capped at forty-five hours a week, and must get two days off.[1][2] These new conditions suggest that Italian authorities saw enough risk to step in and change how the job was run even before any final court ruling.[1][2] Local unions say they plan to seek damages so workers can recover at least what they earned through their labor.[1]
Caddell Construction and the United States Department of State both say they are cooperating with Italian prosecutors and are doing their own internal reviews.[1][2] So far, public reporting does not show either one releasing full payroll ledgers, detailed time sheets, or a point-by-point challenge to the “under $2 an hour” figure.[1][2] That leaves a familiar gap that angers people across the political spectrum: powerful institutions promise transparency but share very little detail. Until more records are released or a court reaches a judgment, the case sits in a grey zone between serious evidence and unresolved claims, feeding broader doubts about whether the system ever truly holds big contractors and government agencies to account.
Sources:
[1] YouTube – Foreign workers say they were paid less than $2 an hour to build new …
[2] Web – Foreign workers say they were paid less than $2 an hour to …
[3] Web – Foreign workers say they were paid less than $2 an hour to …
