Cornish gangmaster Baltic Work Team has had its licence revoked with immediate effect, after workers in cauliflower and courgette fields, in Hayle in Cornwall, were reported to be scavenging for food.
The Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) has deemed a case serious enough to revoke with immediate effect on only one occasion previously. It said the actions of Baltic Work Team (BWT) posed a “significant threat to health and welfare of 40 Bulgarian workers”
The workers, employed by the Redruth-based firm had not been paid for more than a month and had also allegedly been forced to make illicit payments to BWT.
“It is unacceptable that the workers were left to scavenge the fields for food as they had not been paid for 35 days,” said GLA chairman Paul Whitehouse. “It was only through the intervention of the GLA that the workers finally got their money.”
BWT had been under the GLA microscope for a number of months, having already had its licence revoked without immediate effect and being allowed to continue trading until an appeal hearing, which was due on August 24. A second investigation has uncovered the serious nature of BWT’s indiscretions.
“Baltic must stop trading immediately, I find it incredulous that a business who had been given the chance at the appeal hearing to put their house in order and re-apply for a new licence would not take this opportunity,” said Whitehouse.
BWT has three weeks to appeal against the ruling. The company’s directors face a prison sentence as long as 10 years if they fail to obey the immediate revocation.
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