{"id":22777,"date":"2020-07-17T12:28:44","date_gmt":"2020-07-17T11:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=22777"},"modified":"2020-07-20T13:32:56","modified_gmt":"2020-07-20T12:32:56","slug":"theyre-left-totally-in-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=22777","title":{"rendered":"‘They’re left totally in the dark’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ahead of this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s online Tolpuddle Martyrs\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Festival event this weekend (July 17-19), UniteLIVE earlier this week explored the issue of rural poverty <\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u201c and what we can do to fight it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investment in infrastructure is key \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rural areas have long been victims of under-investment, with poor public transport links, subpar internet access and a general lack of affordable and decent housing all failing to attract the skills and businesses needed for economic success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Widespread low wages, coupled with the high cost of living, has led to a rural exodus of young people to towns and cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as the saying goes, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthe true measure of society is how it treats its most vulnerable\u00e2\u20ac\u0165. So any investigation of rural poverty would not be complete without consideration of those at the very bottom in rural economies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c migrant workers, always low-paid and often exploited, who work in our nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s farms and food factories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Migrant workers ‘basically owned’ by agencies<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite regional convenor Iulian Firea, who first moved to the UK from Romania to work at the 2 Sisters food processing plant in Wolverhampton, describes the plight of the rural migrant farm worker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMost migrant farm and food processing workers arrive in the UK with contracts through agencies,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explains. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt means they sign their names on a paper and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re basically owned. They live in crowded barracks, bungalows or caravans. They often live on or near the farm and they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allowed to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTheir salaries are set before leaving their home countries. The workers look at their contracts and see the rate for say, 48 hours a week, and they think, \u00e2\u20ac\u0098well that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reasonable\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 because these salaries are far greater than what they would get in their home countries. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realise it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s far below the going rate \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the rate they should receive, nor the training they should receive. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re left totally in the dark.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite national officer for food, drink and agriculture Bev Clarkson adds that the accommodation migrant workers are forced into is often crowded and expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe conditions they live in are really horrific \u00e2\u20ac\u201c you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have four to six people living in an on-site caravan that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really cramped, and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re charged \u00c2\u014150 or \u00c2\u014160 a week for the privilege,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Bev and Iulian highlight the way in which migrant workers are totally trapped by their agency contracts. Agencies will set the price of not only accommodation that the workers are forced to accept, but because they are so isolated and often cannot leave site, the agencies will set the price of food, of laundry facilities and other very basic, substandard amenities \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and this will all be deducted from workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 wages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bYou\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be charged for food, for transport if the accommodation is not near the workplace and even for a crappy laundry machine for example,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Bev notes. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese migrant workers should be paid the mandatory minimum wage but often in practice they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t because of all of these deductions. At the end they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re often left with very little, in some cases as little as \u00c2\u014130 a week.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bev adds that migrant workers are often encouraged to work long, unsafe hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bYou might be offered say \u00c2\u01418 an hour, before all the deductions, for working an 8-hour shift but if you agree to work a 12-hour shift they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll dangle an \u00c2\u014111-an-hour carrot in front of you. Migrant farm workers are often also on piecework, so that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be paid for a certain number of items they pick and anything above and beyond that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be paid extra. But they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be set with impossible, unreachable targets that again encourages dangerously long working hours. We know that often the working time directive is not adhered to.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working through the pandemic<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Working through the pandemic is especially hard on migrant workers now, who face greater risk to their health because of their working and living conditions, where social distancing is often not observed. Earlier this week we highlighted<\/a> the case of mostly migrant workers at a farm in Hereford, where 73 people have tested positive for Covid-19 and now all workers are self-isolating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Workers on the AS Green and Co farm, which supplies broccoli, broad beans and runner beans to major UK supermarkets, reportedly face brutal working conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to the Guardian<\/em><\/a>, one of only three English female workers on the farm \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Karen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, who quit because of the poor pay and working conditions, said that social distancing was not observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI was isolated at the beginning but after that we were treated as one big household and you are all working together,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bEveryone is living and working so close together that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not surprising that if anyone gets Covid, it will spread very fast, and now nearly half of them have got it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen noted how hard the farm pushes its workers, the vast majority of whom are from Romania or Bulgaria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPeople were punished for getting stuff wrong or being too slow. If you were slow you had to have a day off. It didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen to me, but our whole line was sent home early one day.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Bev highlighted that the conditions at this particular farm are widespread across the sector, and noted how employers have taken advantage of government Covid-19 guidelines for their own selfish ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen the prime minister first announced the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098bubble\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, where people from a single household could join together with another household during lockdown, it was meant for families to be able to see each other again, for grandparents to see their grandchildren. What I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been made aware of is on many farms, the workers are not allowed to leave the farms because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re being told \u00e2\u20ac\u0098this is the family bubble\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greater regulation call<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Bev and Iulian agree that to protect migrant workers and improve their pay and conditions, reinstating the Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) in England is vital. Before it was scrapped in England in 2013, the AWB ensured that farm workers received decent wages and also regulated other areas of farm work such as accommodation, to ensure workers weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t trapped in cramped living conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bReinstating the AWB will provide a vital safety net for migrant farm workers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Iulian said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be such easy prey for agencies, for rogue businesses. It will give migrant workers a level of trust in businesses here in the UK.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bev also highlights a greater need to ramp up overall regulation of agencies and the farms and food factories to which they supply labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) may exist to protect migrant farm and food workers, but it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go far enough,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bMany of these employers may have licenses through the GLAA \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and they made sure they ticked all the boxes to get their licenses, but then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no follow-up after and these employers often then turn to appalling working practices with absolutely no regulatory oversight.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although it may be logistically difficult with the system we now have in place, Iulian believes farms should eventually work toward cutting out agencies altogether. He suggests the government could work with farms to directly advertise migrant worker needs abroad, in the same way, for example, holidays are advertised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bCutting out the middle man would allow workers to keep more of the money they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re earning through their own labour,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt would allow the farms and other companies employing migrant workers to have a stronger connection with their workforce, to maybe start apprenticeships and really invest in their workers. This builds a long-term, stable and skilled workforce that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good for business.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Our biggest challenge is access’<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bev notes that Unite faces many challenges in engaging migrant workers, not least of all because many are afraid that they will lose their jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to be part of the trade union \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in fact many migrant workers come to this country in groups and so they know the value of collective solidarity. Our biggest challenge is access and we are constantly working to overcome this barrier.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may be easy to dismiss the plight of migrant workers when examining rural poverty in the UK and how to tackle it. But the evidence shows that migrant workers are a vital backbone of rural economies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a report from the IPPR think-tank<\/a> found that far from increasing unemployment among native-born populations in rural areas, migrant workers take up hard-to-fill vacancies, and through this actually increase demand in rural areas and the number of jobs overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs well as being workers, migrants are consumers — those who live in rural areas can increase demand in rural economies, which can increase the market for local firms,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the report noted. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen businesses succeed and expand they further increase demand within the economy. This means that even businesses and industries that do not employ migrants themselves can benefit from migration, leading to job creation throughout rural economies in the longer term.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bev agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf we improve the work and living standards for migrant farm workers, we improve the standards for all people living in our rural communities,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe food and agriculture sector has for too long been rife with exploitation of mainly migrant workers who live in appalling conditions and in practice work for wages far below the legal minimum wage. The only way we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll eradicate rural poverty as a whole is if we take seriously the struggles of those at the very bottom.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Hajera Blagg<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ahead of this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s online Tolpuddle Martyrs\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Festival event this weekend (July 17-19), UniteLIVE earlier this week explored the issue of rural poverty \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and what we can do to fight it. Investment in infrastructure is key \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rural areas have long been victims of under-investment, with poor public transport links, subpar internet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12428,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[42,1295,1368,758,574,30],"wps_subtitle":"In part two of our series on rural poverty, we highlight the plight of migrant workers","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22777"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22777"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22789,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22777\/revisions\/22789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}