Over the past year we've uncovered how the UK's seasonal worker visa is riddled with exploitation.
Today we can reveal that the Home Office knew workers were being mistreated, failed to investigate & then tried to stop the allegations from coming to light
NEW: Imagine living with five people in a caravan that's smaller than a one-bedroom flat & together paying up to £2000 a month in rent.
That's how migrant farm workers live in the UK. In the worst cases in freezing cold, mouldy & mice-infested caravans.🧵
A Nepali worker who was underpaid by nearly £1,500 by a British farm is bringing a landmark legal challenge over wage theft and indirect discrimination.
She is the first person on a seasonal worker visa to take her bosses to an employment tribunal. 🧵
“They consider us cheap labour & worthless people.”
I've spent months speaking to dozens of people who came to the UK to work on farms through the government's seasonal worker visa. They spoke of bullying, growing debts & unsafe working conditions.🧵
People who worked on farms through the UK government's farm worker visa in 2022 have faced wage theft, with some owed more than £1000.
This follows on from our investigation last week, which uncovered widespread mistreatment on UK farms
"In fact, reporting on unions is much worse in 2022 than it was in the 70s because after the slow extinction of the industrial correspondents through the 80s and 90s, disputes are seen entirely through the framing of government and 'business leaders'."
1/ Yesterday there was a fascinating session of the
@HLHorticulture
committee looking at exploitation on the UK's seasonal worker visa scheme. There were some shocking revelations, which you probably missed because it got ZERO press coverage. So here is a 🧵 with some highlights.
Nepali workers took on thousands of pounds of debt to come work on UK farms. They expected six months of work, but a few weeks after they arrived they were told to return home. Some were even threatened with being blacklisted.
My latest with
@shanti_das
For the last few months I have been speaking to former employees of one of the darlings of the UK's fintech sector
@RevolutApp
about what it was like to work there. The picture they painted was grim. This is the story
I've spent the last few months speaking to workers that make ready meals, dips and pastries at
@Bakkavor
, a major supplier for
@Tesco
,
@sainsburys
,
@waitrose
& others. They told me some of the most horrific bullying stories I've ever heard [THREAD]
Evidence has been mounting that carers who come to the UK on the health & care visa are being subjected to exploitation & fraud.
We can now reveal this is in large part due to a visa design that punishes workers for whistleblowing🧵
CW:references to rape
They're crying about having 6 months to get a job, while they force thousands of care workers who've done nothing wrong to find a new sponsor in 60 days or risk deportation.
This is how they treat care workers who have faced exploitation and fraud.
Interesting that the reaction of Tory MPs tonight is fatalistic about the result but fury at Sunak. They thought they had 5/6 months to get a job, to plan their lives. They think Sunak doesn't care about them with his millions and his US home. "Selfish" a word I've heard a lot
This was one of the hardest fought campaigns by migrant workers in the UK. It had it all: endless strikes, a national boycott of
@UoLondon
, occupations by students and unflinching determination by the workers. Finally they are coming into work today as equal members of staff.
✊🔥VICTORY!✊🔥
IN-HOUSE OF CLEANERS
Today, all cleaners on the University of London contract have been brought in-house, following a relentless campaign that led to the in-sourcing of their reception-based colleagues and security officers earlier this year. (thread)
Thousands of care workers who came to the UK to fill vital shortages in the care sector have been told by the government they have 60 days to find a new visa sponsor or leave the country, under threat of deportation & prosecution.
Our latest w/
@ObserverUK
Hipster bank
@RevolutApp
asks job applicants to work for free recruiting at least 200 new customers to have a chance at getting a job. This is happening in Spain where unemployment is over 15% and people are desperate for a job.
@jamie_woodcock
@n_srnck
@geoplace
@tom_swing
When he complained about the wind blowing through the caravan, his manager told him to tape up the vents. He complained again and was told that if he wasn't happy, he could return to Kazakhstan.
“Even in our post-Soviet Union countries no one runs a business like that," he said
Was sent this photo of a poster calling for a walk-out at Pimlico Academy - the school that's been criticised for its discriminatory uniforms policy. At a time when everything seems so bleak, seeing young people stand up for their rights fills me with hope. The kids are alright!
These headlines on the Uber/GMB deal reveal a profound ignorance of UK employment law.
Uber drivers have been members of unions for YEARS & workers don't need permission from a company to unionise. Union membership is a fundamental right, enshrined in the ECHR.
What struck me from many of the interviews was how surprised migrant workers were to find what little employment protections they had in the UK. They did not expect there to be this level of exploitation in a European country.
Vadim Sardov worked at a packhouse that supplies supermarkets including
@aldiUK
and
@SPARintheUK
. He says vents, broken doors and broken windows meant the wind would blow through the freezing cold caravan, which reached 8C in November. This was his caravan
Twenty workers who came to the UK on the government’s seasonal worker visa told
@TBIJ
and
@WORCrights
that they had problems with their housing. Issues ranged from leaking pipes to having to share beds with strangers. This is a caravan room that was shared by two men.
Last week I spoke to BBC Radio 4 about our latest investigation.
We found that hundreds of seasonal migrant workers raised welfare concerns with Home Office compliance officers, but the government failed to investigate, & then tried to stop the allegations from coming to light.
Deliveroo says its riders are heroes, but our analysis of invoice data of over 300 riders from across the UK found that in the last year 41% were earning below the £8.72 minimum wage.
Meanwhile, the IPO could value CEO Will Shu's stake at £500 million.
This is the third part of our investigation into the seasonal worker visa scheme. You can find the first part, which foucses on the widsespread mistreatment workers face while working on farms here:
“They consider us cheap labour & worthless people.”
I've spent months speaking to dozens of people who came to the UK to work on farms through the government's seasonal worker visa. They spoke of bullying, growing debts & unsafe working conditions.🧵
I was also surprised about how little we know about what is happenning on farms. We often hear about labour shortages and possible food shortages, but these workers who make sure there's food on supermarket shelves are completely left out of the conversation.
The Home Office says that substandard accommodation is the responsibility of local government, but caravans fall outside of normal housing regulations, so councils do not have the same power to inspect and enforce as they would with rented flats or houses.
Andrey worked at a farm which supplies soft fruits to
@tesco
,
@morrisons
and
@AldiUK
. For part of the time he was there, the farm housed him in a hostel which was often cold, and with a bathroom that was dirty and falling to pieces. These are the showers in the men’s bathroom…
BOOM! Spain's labour inspectorate demands
@Deliveroo
pay EUR 1.3m in unpaid social security payments, after it rules that workers are employees and not independent contractors.
#gigeconomy
#deliverjustice
1/ This week I gave evidence to the House of Lords Horticulture Committee
@HLHorticulture
, alongside three of the workers who spoke to us as part of our wide-ranging investigation into farm work and the UK's seasonal worker visa scheme.
Here is a 🧵 with some highlights.
People who worked on farms through the UK government's farm worker visa in 2022 have faced wage theft, with some owed more than £1000.
This follows on from our investigation last week, which uncovered widespread mistreatment on UK farms
…and these are the toilets. One worker resorted to messaging the farm on instagram to try and get the heating turned on. We contacted the farm several times, but they did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
📢THE YEAR IN WORK📢
So here's my rundown on this year’s biggest developments in the world of work. From Covid, to attempts to regulate the gig economy, 2021 has seen massive changes to how we work, and how we respond to these challenges. Here are the 12 biggest stories...
The British Retail Consortium said its members “are urgently reviewing the allegations raised by these workers, engaging with their primary suppliers to ensure a comprehensive investigation is undertaken.”
But many of these issues are already known to authorities. A report by the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration found that workers reported poor treatment to the Home Office, but allegations were never investigated by the government.
Sapana Pangeni's lawyers are arguing that she suffered indirect discrimination as a result of her six-month seasonal worker visa, making it harder to uphold her rights compared to people with a more secure immigration status.
This video is from a farm in Scotland. The worker who shared this said that in December he had to sleep with a blanket over his head because water would drip on him. We contacted the farm who said they had advised him to ventilate the caravan to avoid condensation.
We uncovered widespread mistreatment of people working at more than 20 UK farms, nurseries and packhouses in 2022. Issues ranged from not going to the toilet for fear of not hitting targets, to being made to work in gale-force winds.
Our investigation into the ways the health and care visa punishes whistleblowers, and creates conditions for widespread exploitation has been covered by newspapers in Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and South Africa.
This is a sign of how important this story is for people outside the UK.
Evidence has been mounting that carers who come to the UK on the health & care visa are being subjected to exploitation & fraud.
We can now reveal this is in large part due to a visa design that punishes workers for whistleblowing🧵
CW:references to rape
It is hard to overstate Sapana's courage and determination. Of the nearly one hundred workers I have spoken to since I started reporting on the seasonal worker visa, she is one of only two who I know have brought a claim.
Forced to share beds and live in freezing caravans with leaking ceilings, all while paying more per square foot than for a flat in London. An investigation from
@VICEWorldNews
and
@TBIJ
reveals the shocking living conditions of migrant farm workers.
*personal news*
In November I'll be joining
@TBIJ
's
@bureaulocal
team as a community organiser. It's a privilege to be given the chance to work on investigations with such an amazing group of journalists & organisers.
Sadly, this means next week will be my last at
@IWGBunion
I've just been informed of the passing of former Institute of Historical Research (IHR) receptionist and
@IWGBunion
activist Glen Jacques. His family have asked for donations in his memory to Bowel Cancer UK or Kidney Research UK
The people who spoke to me for this article, including Ismail, Zainab & Katherine*, are still looking for work. Katherine has less than a week before her visa ceases to be valid.
If you're a care provider who can sponsor them, or if you know somebody who can, please get in touch
Thousands of care workers who came to the UK to fill vital shortages in the care sector have been told by the government they have 60 days to find a new visa sponsor or leave the country, under threat of deportation & prosecution.
Our latest w/
@ObserverUK
On this May Day, I am thinking of Roman. He is now fighting in Ukraine, but he felt so strongly about how poorly he was treated when working on UK farms that he took time to send me this video testimony of his experiences while on the seasonal worker visa.
Some workers said they would be shouted at or punished for having their mobile in their pocket or for talking to work colleagues while on the field. Others said they were threatened by recruiters with being deported or blacklisted.
📢THE WEEK IN WORK📢A weekly update on work news. This week…
🏴A third of advertised jobs in Scotland pay less than the real living wage
💷Loophole that allowed jobs to pay £1 p/hour is overturned
🕵️♂️BrewDog boss hired private investigators to gather information on whistleblowers
This looks to be the single biggest victory ever by outsourced workers in the UK, and follows similar wins at Imperial College NHS Trust, University of London & the LSE.
Funny that as recently as five years ago people were saying that insourcing campaigns were unwinnable.
Major victory for outsourced NHS workers at Barts!
Unite has struck a landmark agreement with one of the UK’s largest NHS trusts to bring 1,800 NHS workers employed by the outsourcer Serco into NHS employment.
#UniteWIN
The same report told of a case of a worker who found it so hard to get healthcare that “he was in agony for about 4 hours and then he had to pull out his own tooth.”
A few weeks ago I went on BBC Politics South East to talk about our most recent investigation into the UK's seasonal worker visa.
Here I share just a handful of the allegations migrant workers made to the Home Office, and which the Home Office failed to investigate.
The UK could be in breach of its international law obligations to prevent forced labour, according to the UN’s envoy on modern slavery.
He told me that he was “very concerned” by reports of forced labour indicators on UK farms,such as wage theft & threats
📢HEAR YE, HEAR YE📢 I'm going to start doing threads on Monday mornings with a run-down of the previous week's news on work/unions, mostly focused on the UK. Let me know what you think.
To start off, on Tuesday the govenrment refused to extend sick pay.
Solidarity with Reach plc journalists as they head to the picket lines today. Journalism is broken in so many ways, but part of it is the decades-long race to the bottom on pay & conditions. I imagine that the outcome of this dispute will have consequences for the whole industry.
I was recently on
@trashfuturepod
talking about our investigation into the health & care visa, & why I think this is a crisis of equal magnitude to Windrush or Post Office/Horizon.
Thanks again to
@raaleh
@postoctobrist
&
@HKesvani
for having me on & being great hosts.
🗣️ “When the dust settles on this and we look back, this will be a crisis, in terms of the human damage that it’s done, on the par with Windrush and on the par with the Post Office Horizon scandal” –
@Mellino
Big emphasis in ther Uber Supreme Court judgement on the level of control Uber exercises over its drivers & the fact drivers can't improve their economic outcomes by their own initiative. Hits the nail on the head on the lack of autonomy you have as a
#gigeconomy
worker.
3/
@KR0b3rts
said they also surveyed workers on living conditions on farms. Only 73% said they had access to a working toilet and only 39% said they felt safe in their accommodation.
I found similar issues when conducting my investigation for
@TBIJ
:
NEW: Imagine living with five people in a caravan that's smaller than a one-bedroom flat & together paying up to £2000 a month in rent.
That's how migrant farm workers live in the UK. In the worst cases in freezing cold, mouldy & mice-infested caravans.🧵
The employment tribunal system is also incredibly slow. She filed for early conciliation via ACAS in April 2023, and her preliminary hearing was only held this week. For the full hearing she will have to wait until May 2024 - more than a year after she started proceedings.
We interviewed nearly 50 workers who told us they faced exploitation – from not going to the toilet from fear of missing targets, to being made to work during dangerous storms
Sybil said her supervisors would refer to her by her assigned number rather than her name 👇
But her determination is already showing some results. EU Plants Ltd is denying most of the claim, but admitted that it had failed to pay £192 in holiday pay, something it rectified in May, after Sapana had initiated proceedings.
I'm not in the habit of criticising journalists, but this is embarrassing. Nominally left-wing publication
@DailyMirror
uncritically running
@Deliveroo
propaganda & thus helping the company slash rider wages. All of Shu's assertions are presented as fact, with no opposing opinion
10/ I think this moment is really telling, and it is no fault of the
@UKDirectorLME
. The truth is that there are virtually no routes for redress for agricultural workers on the scheme - as is revealed by the answers given by representatives of other government departments.
In April I published an investigation based on the testimony of Sapana & six of her colleagues at EU Plants Ltd. When they complained to their recruiter about wage theft, they were transferred to another farm, but they were not paid what they were owed.
2/ First off,
@KR0b3rts
presented some preliminary findings of
@FocusOnLabour
research into the scheme. They found that the LOWEST total costs paid by Indonesian workers who came to work on farms in the UK in 2022 was £3000!
Nepalese workers that came last year to cover shortages in the agricultural sector created by Brexit paid more than £3000 in "extortionate" fees.
This raises questions about the underfunding of UK labour enforcement.
Our latest for
@tbij
&
@bureaulocal
7/
@CaroRobins0n
also said that in Canada there are very clear standards on accommodation and these are actively enforced, whereas in the UK “enforcement of standards has not been a major focus”.
6/
@CaroRobins0n
of the Worker Support Centre in Scotland said in other countries similar schemes are better managed. In New Zealand & Canada workers can move to an "exploitation protection visa”, that allows them to leave the employer they are tied to if they face exploitation.
📢THE WEEK IN WORK📢A weekly update on work news. This week:
🦸♀️Sharon Graham is elected General Secretary of the UK’s biggest private sector union, Unite.
🔒Talk of labour shortages continue, but what does this mean for prison labour?
⚡️Council strikes on the horizon
At least 23 Palestinian journalists have been killed since 7 October, most as a result of Israeli bombing or shelling, according
@IFJGlobal
.
This is more than all the journalists that have died in Ukraine since 2014.
9/ Later a seemingly frustrated Baroness Fookes asked what routes for redress workers have on the UK scheme. To which the
@UKDirectorLME
said they can complain to their recruiter!? and if that doesn’t work, they can go to ACAS...
But ACAS has no powers to enforce employment law!
4/ Adis Sehic of
@WORCrights
said the most common complaints they have from workers are being paid incorrectly by farms, being fired, illegal recruitment fees, poor standards of accommodation, discrimination and being refused transfers to other farms.
Not to bang an old drum, but the fact that the media (left & mainstream) largely ignored her or wrote her off goes to show the huge need there is for industrial reporting. It wouldn't have been hard for a reporter to reach out to Workers Unite, construction workers or others.
Sharon Graham announced as Unite's new general secretary.
"I thoroughly congratulate Sharon on her victory, which reaffirms her as the most formidable campaigning force in our movement" -
@LenMcCluskey
Read more ⬇️
Sapana shared and email with us that she had written to her recruiter in which she said:
“It is getting harder to pay for groceries and living expenses...I am working here under frustration and very bad working conditions.”
@IWGB_CLB
This guy is a director of the Social Market Foundation, which was previously commissioned by Deliveroo to conduct research. They also produced a report telling us that workers don't actually want a four-day week.
I was on Radio 4's The World Tonight yesterday talking about
@TBIJ
's investigation into the UK's seasonal worker visa.
I want to thank the team for including the voices of some of the workers we interviewed. Sadly, it's been missing from the broader conversation
The 1st part:
GMB says lifting the fracking ban could create "thousands of jobs" and "offers part of the solution to the energy crisis". The second claim, at least, has been previously debunked, including in this report by Carbon Brief:
HMRC is being asked to reconsider a loan charge it has placed on workers that participated in “disguised remuneration schemes”, after eight committed suicide. It is thought that about 50,000 people are being pursued for about £3bn in total.
Covid decided to wait two years & get me just when I got my longest period of uninterrupted time off work. That means there'll be no Week in Work today, but I'll be preparing a special Year in Work for next week! In the meantime, enjoy this stock photo of picketing cats.
Applications are open for
@TBIJ
's Aziz fellowship, a six-month paid opportunity for a young journalist from a Muslim background that wants to get into investigative journalism. If any potential applicants have questions please do get in touch with me.
Following a 5-month FOI battle, we were given access to 19 farm inspection reports produced by the Home Office between 2021-22.
Hundreds of workers interviewed during the inspections raised issues including racism, wage theft & threats of being sent back home.
Here's an example
Undocumented migrants who don't have proof of address or ID are being refused reigstration with GP surgeries, in contravention of NHS rules. This has put many in a
#VaccineMaze
, as they're locked out of official NHS vaccine booking portals. Our latest:
📢THE WEEK IN WORK📢 A weekly update on work news. This week…
🧑⚖️Former French Deliveroo execs could face prison sentences as criminal case looms
🧹Legal action being taken against Dyson over labour abuses in Malaysia
🏴Welsh care workers get £1,000 bonus and a living wage
@TBIJ
Our investigations have also found that the UK government has failed to investigate allegations made by hundreds of workers. The UN’s special rapporteur, Tomoya Obokata, said this was “a clear breach of an international human rights obligation”.
Over the past year we've uncovered how the UK's seasonal worker visa is riddled with exploitation.
Today we can reveal that the Home Office knew workers were being mistreated, failed to investigate & then tried to stop the allegations from coming to light
The UK's immigration policy watchdog has criticised the Home Office after
@TBIJ
discovered that the government had dropped a committment to produce a review of the seasonal worker visa scheme.
The latest from
@hajmedd
and myself.
11/
@IndependentCI
said there's no evidence standards were being upheld by the Home Office. The HO did 25 compliance visits & “found significant welfare issues” in more than a third. At best the findings “were fed back to operators several months later, at worst nothing was done”
"Why do we have 1.2m on the dole... can't we use some of them [for fruit picking]? They should be made to pick."
Ann Widdecombe says people on benefits should be made to fill agricultural jobs.
Do you agree?
@JemmaForte
|
@theJeremyVine
|
#JeremyVine
📢Here's my weekly update on work/union news📢. It was a big week, which kicked off with Labour (re)announcing its policy around work, including rights for all workers from day one and a single employment status for all workers.
Human rights experts say that conditions for agricultural workers on the UK's government's seasonal visa are starting to resemble the treatment of migrant workers in the Gulf.
FairSquare has flagged the parallels between aspects of the UK’s scheme and the treatment of migrant workers in the Gulf, where system design gives rise to a heightened risk of abuse.
One group of Nepali workers told us that when they were recruited they were promised to be paid £10.10 p/hour, but when they started working, the farm manager told them that instead they would be on "piece rate" based on the number of plants they prepared.
5/ Sehic added that while they have spoken to plenty of workers who had their employment terminated after less than three months, the number of people added to the scheme is growing exponentially. Since 2019 the scheme has grown by 2000%!!!
📢THE WEEK IN WORK📢 A weekly update on work news. This week..
🏦New director of labour market enforcement has been appointed
🇲🇽Mexico to raise the minimum wage by 22%
🌟Unite wins 43 pay deals in Sharon Graham’s first 100 days as General Secretary
📢My weekly update on work/union news📢
Last week BEIS put up a list of employers that were found paying below the min wage,yet most offenders are never caught. In 2019-20, HMRC received 3,332 reports, but the LPC estimates 420,000 workers were underpaid.
I’m excited to share this tool we’ve developed with
@Autonomy_Inst
, which will help migrant care workers find companies that are licensed to sponsor visas. It addresses a need that came up time & time again when
@vi_gayle
& I were talking to care workers
📢THE WEEK IN WORK📢 a weekly update on work news. This week:
⌚️New ONS unemployment figures are published, but is the picture of work in the UK more complicated?
⚡️Strikes continue in the logistics sector and beyond.
💵Worker wins for better pay and to end outsourcing.
15/ That's all... Many of the issues higlighted in the session were also raised by our investigation, which found widespread mistreatment of workers, alongside poor living conditions.
I leave you with this thread of worker testimonies:
On this May Day, I am thinking of Roman. He is now fighting in Ukraine, but he felt so strongly about how poorly he was treated when working on UK farms that he took time to send me this video testimony of his experiences while on the seasonal worker visa.