Blitz on casual farm labour

Employers who exploit agricultural workers and defraud the Government are being targeted in a crackdown on illegal work on farms.

Operation Gangmaster aims to uncover employers who sign up illegal immigrants and benefit claimants for seasonal work in the farming industry.

Not only are they costing the Treasury millions of pounds a year in lost tax and national insurance, but they often abuse the workers by using their illegal status as an excuse to pay pitiful wages for working in poor conditions.

About 70,000 seasonal workers are employed every year on farms.

Some are being enticed into the countryside from inner cities or even smuggled into Britain from Eastern Europe to work for as little as £1 an hour at harvest time.

Gangmasters use workers' poor grasp of English and illegal status to intimidate them into not complaining about long working hours and hefty deductions from pay packets for transport or accommodation costs.

Launching the clampdown, Farms Minister Lord Donoughue said the vast majority of gangmasters - employed by farmers to provide labour at times of great need - were respectable. But he said a "significant minority" of about 20 per cent of the 2,000 gangmasters were believed to be involved in criminal activities.

In a three-pronged attack, raids will be carried out at farms involving eight different enforcement agencies, including the Benefits Agency, Customs and Excise and the Health and Safety Executive.

A new code of practice has been launched by the National Farmers' Union and the Fresh Produce Consortium to help farmers ensure workers on their farms are being treated fairly.

Thirdly, for the first time leaflets are being printed explaining workers' rights, including 10,000 in Polish and Russian, to be distributed among the workers.

The first raid in the operation took place at the end of April on spring onion farms in Lincolnshire.

Of the 180 workers interviewed, 50 turned out to be benefit claimants and 37 were arrested for possible immigration offences. This led to 30 of them being served notices of illegal entry or deportation orders.

Lord Donoughue said the action saved some £100,000 in benefit payments. He said: "There are a significant minority of gangmasters in this country whose activities are simply unacceptable.

"I am very concerned about the intimidation and abuse of workers' rights which some of these people are involved in."

The initiative is being supported by the Transport and General Workers' Union.

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