Unpaid work at the European Parliament

This is the story of a Romanian IT consultant whose dream of moving to Luxembourg soon came to an end. Eduard Tric, 56, was contacted in October 2023 by Uni Systems, an IT service provider. The Romanian had been running a small IT consultancy company, Axetel Consulting, since 1997, of which he was the sole employee, having previously worked as head of information systems security (CISO) in France for Microsoft and then for large companies such as Orange and BNP Paribas. The IT specialist successfully passed the selection tests set by the service provider.

The contract offered by Uni Systems is attractive: 610 euros per working day for a renewable two-year period, since the Uni Systems framework contract runs until the end of 2027. A golden opportunity for Mr Tric to move to Luxembourg and, who knows, make his mark there. "They came looking for me, " explains Eduard Tric, whom the Journal met at the end of March. "They promised me the best, told me that my contract was renewable and that I could then be hired directly by the European Parliament. My partner quit her job, our son enrolled at the University of Luxembourg and we moved house. We found a flat to rent on rue des Bains for which I paid 15,000 euros, including the deposit, agency fees and first rent."