One of the UK's largest fresh fruit suppliers has been accused of exploiting its workers by allegedly paying them less than half the country's minimum wage.
According to an investigation reported in today's edition of The Independent newspaper, foreigners working for Hereford-based company S&A Produce are being paid as little as £45 (€52.35) per week to pick berries, asparagus and sweetcorn.
Despite being paid an official rate of £5.74 (€6.68), which is actually above the minimum wage, the newspaper said it had seen employee pay slips showing 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'.
Rebecca Edmonds, a spokeswoman for S&A Davies, refuted the allegations, telling the paper that the pay deductions were required in order to pay for accommodation and entertainment facilities.
'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,' she commented '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.'
S&A supplies a number of UK supermarkets, including Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Spar, producing around 13,000 tonnes of strawberries, 450 tonnes of raspberries, 70 tonnes of blackberries, 500 tonnes of asparagus and 8m cobs of sweetcorn every year. It is the UK's biggest producer of strawberries.
The company is one of nine groups in the UK which are permitted to employ people from outside the EU as part of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme.
S&A Produce declined to comment further on the report's allegations.
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