A Cornish grower has been praised by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) for coming to the aid of workers left freezing and destitute in a cabbage field.
The GLA has stepped up the call for the new offence of forced labour to be considered in such cases.
The labour providers Abrar ul Haq, director and principal authority, and Gary Richards, recruitment consultant, both of Rapier Recruitment Ltd - have been convicted after leaving eight Polish table-waiting staff to work a cabbage field dressed in thin sports clothing and shoes in January 2008.
The Poles had arrived in the UK via an unlicensed agency in Poland and were given contracts specifying they would be working in the catering industry as waiters and waitresses. As the workers believed that they would be working in restaurants, they were not prepared for Cornish fields in winter, where they were expected to cut, weigh and pack 1,200 cabbages an hour each in order to be paid the agricultural minimum wage.
GLA inspectors found the workers in near freezing conditions in the muddy, wet field. The grower whose crop they were picking was so concerned for their welfare that he provided them with free food and clothing as soon as he was aware of their plight. The GLA investigating officer said: “We were delighted by the support of the farmer, who was upset at the way the workers had been treated. He went out of his way to provide them with food and the equipment they should have received from the gangmaster.”
Ul Haq was given 300 hours of community service and ordered to pay £5,000 in costs while Richards got 200 hours and was ordered to pay £3,000 in costs.
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