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Wed, Feb 08 2012
The Independent: Exploitation of migrant farm workers in Britain still rife
Photo: Darren Staples
The UK's Independent newspaper has revealed the latest grim reality of migrant farm workers arriving from Bulgaria and Romania. After reports from Bulgarians employed in similar occupations in Britain last year, and ensuing vague promises that things would change, it now seems that, in reality, little has been done to remedy the situation.
According to the newspaper, foreign fruit pickers work hard but take home as little as 45 pounds sterling (half the minimum wage) a week at S&A Produce, which provides some of Britain's largest supermarkets with fruit, The Independent has discovered.
The situation is exacerbated by the fact that, unlike Poles and Czechs, for example, Bulgarians and Romanians are still excluded from full rights and full access to the British labour market, meaning they have few other employment opportunities and almost no one to turn to for assistance.
Bulgarian and Romanian farm workers, interviewed by The Independent, said they headed for Britain confident they would be working for decent pay for at least six months before going home. Instead, out of the initial 2400 workers initially requested by the British government, 346 have already been told to leave because the picking was done early. The wages turned out to be far lower than they imagined and far lower than the minimum wage.
"Earlier this week, S&A Produce, the UK's largest producer of strawberries, fired 346 employees who now have to return home, because the majority of the fruit picking had been completed," says The Independent.
Last year, there were reports of Bulgarians returning from England who said they had been "packed like animals in caravans, worked for no money, and offered no legal protection".
Their revelations on TV, on arrival back at Sofia Airport caused outrage, but the UK authorities would appear to have done little to solve the problem.
The Independent also noted that "locals have complained that since the workers were laid off, some Bulgarians have been knocking on doors looking for cash-in-hand jobs to earn enough money to return home".
S&A Produce, which supplies both Tesco and Sainsbury's, employs thousands of eastern Europeans who are given a specific work visa allowing them to work for the company. They were lured by the prospect of earning up to 200 pounds sterling a week by picking fruit on its farms in Herefordshire and Kent, but the Independent discovered, through pay slips obtained by migrant workers, that the real hourly rate for the company's fruit pickers often amounts to less than half the minimum wage once a series of obligatory charges has been deducted.
The Independent quotes Rebecca Edmonds, a spokeswoman for S&A Davies, as saying pay deductions were needed to provide accommodation. She also denied that the company was exploiting workers. "We try to make it as clear as we can that we cannot guarantee the number of days or hours worked because of the seasonal nature of fruit picking. Regrettably we have had to offer fewer hours than we would have liked. But at least 84 per cent of the people we had to let go indicated in writing that they would like to come back next year which suggests that it is a minority, not a majority, or workers who have disliked working with us."
According to the newspaper, foreign fruit pickers work hard but take home as little as 45 pounds sterling (half the minimum wage) a week at S&A Produce, which provides some of Britain's largest supermarkets with fruit, The Independent has discovered.
The situation is exacerbated by the fact that, unlike Poles and Czechs, for example, Bulgarians and Romanians are still excluded from full rights and full access to the British labour market, meaning they have few other employment opportunities and almost no one to turn to for assistance.
Bulgarian and Romanian farm workers, interviewed by The Independent, said they headed for Britain confident they would be working for decent pay for at least six months before going home. Instead, out of the initial 2400 workers initially requested by the British government, 346 have already been told to leave because the picking was done early. The wages turned out to be far lower than they imagined and far lower than the minimum wage.
"Earlier this week, S&A Produce, the UK's largest producer of strawberries, fired 346 employees who now have to return home, because the majority of the fruit picking had been completed," says The Independent.
Last year, there were reports of Bulgarians returning from England who said they had been "packed like animals in caravans, worked for no money, and offered no legal protection".
Their revelations on TV, on arrival back at Sofia Airport caused outrage, but the UK authorities would appear to have done little to solve the problem.
The Independent also noted that "locals have complained that since the workers were laid off, some Bulgarians have been knocking on doors looking for cash-in-hand jobs to earn enough money to return home".
S&A Produce, which supplies both Tesco and Sainsbury's, employs thousands of eastern Europeans who are given a specific work visa allowing them to work for the company. They were lured by the prospect of earning up to 200 pounds sterling a week by picking fruit on its farms in Herefordshire and Kent, but the Independent discovered, through pay slips obtained by migrant workers, that the real hourly rate for the company's fruit pickers often amounts to less than half the minimum wage once a series of obligatory charges has been deducted.
The Independent quotes Rebecca Edmonds, a spokeswoman for S&A Davies, as saying pay deductions were needed to provide accommodation. She also denied that the company was exploiting workers. "We try to make it as clear as we can that we cannot guarantee the number of days or hours worked because of the seasonal nature of fruit picking. Regrettably we have had to offer fewer hours than we would have liked. But at least 84 per cent of the people we had to let go indicated in writing that they would like to come back next year which suggests that it is a minority, not a majority, or workers who have disliked working with us."
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If the workers in these two countries were paid a decent wage then the cost of there fruit will increase and people would not buy it. If you go to the UK you will get the same outcome people will not buy. There is a thing called competition so if you do not want to be used as slaves stay away from the UK.
Yea' right, I think you 2 will work for that ammount of money, crawling in mud all day. I think the owner of this sucking company has the same xenophobe ideas like you 2 have. And you didn't understood that we payed more than we earned till now.
The supermarkets sell there goods at a price they know the customer will pay these people should stop moaning about getting cheated if they are in there own country they would also buy the cheapest goods does this mean they would support migrant workers i dont think so.Also i would buy my fruit from a market not a bloody rip off store so stop your moaning and dont come to the UK or Ireland
Now you know why the Brits will not do this work you get paid more on benifits also what people do not understand is the fact that its very exspensive to live in the UK and whatever you earn will be spent on the cost of living.Also i do not give a monkeys about the supermarkets if the customer will not pay an inflated price then they will have to exploit the idiots that go to the UK thinking that they will earn a fortune who gives a sh*t stay in your own country and ask for a decent wage. [...]
Read the full comment there.
My sympathies are with Vlad, and his story has more than the ring of truth. On behalf of the UK (seriously), my apologies to Vlad.
(All that I can console him with is the news that many of us British are boycotting S&A and the stores they supply, namely Tesco and Sainsburys.)
I'm working for this company from May and I earned about 400 pounds. The company that hired us in Romania told us that we gonna' earn about 1k/month. We spent about 600 euro to come to S&A, wich doesn't seem to care about this modern form of slavery....working for your invested money!! I advise anyone to evoid S&A and the vampire-like companies. JaH bLESS
I'm afraid this report is true, and it does not reflect well on the UK. The British Ministry of Agriculture tried to regulate the situation in the 1990s with legislation to control the "gangmasters" who organised casual agricultural labour, but the situation is still unsatisfactory.
All that can be done for the moment is for UK consumers - prompted by the Independent - to boycott strawberries and other fruits from Sainsbury and Tesco (S&A's largest clients).
As it happens, two UK supermarkets (at opposite ends of the market !) have undertaken to [...]
Read the full comment ensure that their fruit-pickers are fairly treated: Waitrose and the Co-Operative. (So I myself am careful to ensure that I buy my strawberries from Waitrose !)
I didn't read anywhere in the report that any of the workers had been dragged from their homes in Bulgaria, handcuffed, flown to the UK, shackled to the tractor, and then made to work for a pitance. Let Bulgaria cast the first stone for the ever growing goods imported from China, made by people paid less than $2 a day....Hypocrites.