The Gangmasters Licensing Authority has uncovered abuse of workers in the cut-flower, plant and bulb industry in Lincolnshire, including suspected debt bondage.
The unannounced raid - dubbed operation Bismark - targeted labour providers to the ornamentals sector around Spalding and Boston in the run up to Mothers Day and Easter.
GLA officers with the assistance of the Vehicle & Operator Services Agency (VOSA) entered the premises of a number of nurseries, inspected vehicles used to transport workers and carried out worker interviews on several daffodil fields in the area.
The gangmasters were supplying hundreds of mainly British, Polish and Slovakian workers to pick daffodils and work in the nurseries.
Officers found several abuses including workers being transported on a plank of wood held up by breeze blocks in the back of a van; some workers had been charged £60 a week for accommodation and had not been given any work for three weeks; workers were required to surrender their passports to the gangmaster; the agricultural minimum wage was not paid; excessive accommodation charges, some charges were over £30 per week more than the legal requirement for minimum wage workers. Some workers did not receive holiday pay and were charged for the personal protective equipment they required to carry out their jobss.
As a result of the sting, 13 licensed gangmasters are under investigation and VOSA has issued two prohibition notices on minibuses. During the extensive three day operation, over 130 workers were interviewed. The GLA has since been carrying out further investigations and 13 inspections of gangmaster businesses and their records will be taking place shortly to follow up the initial findings.
“When a worker does not get a chance to work and owes mounting accommodation debts to the gangmaster they are in grave danger of exploitation,” said GLA chairman Paul Whitehouse. “Debt ondage is a disgrace and I will not stand for it. The GLA is making its mark in the fight against exploitation. If you suspect worker abuse including workers in overcrowded housing or see unfit minibuses used to transport them, tell us and we can do the rest.”
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