A new Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) report reveals massive exploitation of a growing migrant work force in Italy’s agricultural sector and in tomato production in particular.
Article continues below
]
Italian tomatoes account for 60 percent of processed tomatoes sold in the UK.
Nick Kightley, ETI’s food and farming adviser said exploitation is inextricably linked to so called Caporali.
These are the illegal gangmasters who hire migrant workers who pick and pack Italy’s tomatoes – even though Italy banned the Caporalato system in 2011 following revelations of appalling working conditions and links to organised crime.
“Foreign labour is regarded as crucial to enable Italian agriculture to compete on global markets. Yet in a race to make the biggest possible profit, employment laws are being routinely ignored,†said Nick Kightley.
“Reliance on migrant workers, and the employment illegalities inherent within the tomato sector, has massive knock-on implications for those UK retailers that want to ensure their supply chains are abuse free.â€
While illegality affects EU and non-EU workers alike, non-EU workers are particularly vulnerable and disproportionately affected because of their migration status, typically working very long hours with wages 40 percent lower than legal minimum thresholds.
And numbers are rising although estimates of those at risk vary, "Counteracting exploitation of migrant workers in Italian tomato production" reveals that:
Officially, the number of foreign agricultural workers in Italy is estimated to be 116,000.
In contrast the respected Italian Association for Legal Studies on Immigration (ASGI) suggests the figure is 500,000, including regular and irregular migrants.
In 2014, research institute Osservatorio Placido Rizzotto estimated that 400,000 agricultural workers, of whom 80 percent were migrants, were at risk of exploitation by Caporali and that in excess of 100,000 illegally employed non-EU migrant workers experienced severe exploitation including appalling living conditions. ■