“We are tired of being abused”

The following feature first appeared in the most recent edition of Landworker – you can read the full issue online here.

Unite is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with migrant workers who have faced exploitation on British farms. 

The union joined a number of charities and NGOs at a protest outside the Home Office in London in January to speak out against the abuse of migrant workers on the government’s Seasonal Worker Scheme (SWS). 

A group of migrant workers, mainly from Latin America, have organised under the name Justice is Not Seasonal and are collectively taking their former employer, Haygrove Farms, to court. When still employed by Haygrove, they bravely took part in wildcat strike action. 

Informally leading the group is Julia Quecaño Casimiro, who was the first known migrant worker on the government scheme to take a farm to an employment tribunal. She filed her case last November and a preliminary hearing took place in March.

Casimiro has alleged unlawful deduction of wages, unfair dismissal, discrimination and harassment. A separate investigation by the Home Office found, in a preliminary ruling in February, that she may have been the victim of modern-day slavery. 

Speaking at the Home Office protest via a translator, Julia said, “We are tired of being abused; we are tired of our rights being violated just because we are foreigners. We want justice for everyone.”

Landworker previously featured Julia’s harrowing story in a republished investigation by journalist Emiliano Mellino, which originally appeared on the Bureau for Investigative Journalism’s website. 

Julia’s journey began in 2023, when she was recruited in Chile to pick berries for Haygrove Farms in the UK. A recruiter promised her that she would earn £500 a week. Julia jumped at the chance to earn enough to support her family back home and pay for her studies in biochemistry. 

Instead, she and more than 100 other Latin American workers employed by the farm received no pay or shifts during the first week they arrived. The next week, they earned about £150. 

Julia, who is an experienced agricultural worker, reported abysmal working and living conditions that she had never before experienced when she worked in Chile – they were shouted at by supervisors, and they often had no access to drinking water. When she tried to raise health and safety issues with managers, she was denied shifts. 

The last straw for Julia and about 90 other workers, which prompted them to take unofficial strike action, was when Haygrove billed them £1,500 for return flights, which had to be paid in instalments of £250 a month. That would leave Julia and other workers with less than £20 a month after accommodation and other deductions. 

Many workers, including Julia, eventually left the farm – Julia ended up homeless in London. 

Unite agricultural chair Steve Leniec, who attended the Home Office demo, said it was vital Unite’s FDA sector stood in support of the abused migrant workers. 

“These workers have come to this country under false promises,” he told Landworker. “They’ve experienced unacceptable abuse, and this is happening in our sector. We cannot stand by and allow this abuse to continue.”

Steve went on to say that a big part of the problem was the Seasonal Workers Scheme (SWS) itself. He believes the scheme, which was first introduced by the previous Tory government, but has continued unchanged under Labour, is in urgent need of reform. 

“The biggest problem with the SWS and other visas which bring migrant workers here temporarily is that workers are tied to one employer,” Steve explained. 

“If the employer is abusive, they’ve got nowhere to go. That’s because leaving the employer means you’re left with no income, and no possibility of working elsewhere. If the employer also provides accommodation, then, as was the case with Julia, you’re left homeless as well.”

Steve said that while Unite FDA has sought to support migrant workers directly through recruitment, he noted that the union faces many challenges. 

“A big challenge is identifying these workers, because they’re living in isolation on farms and very much kept away from any kind of community,” Steve explained. “Language is also obviously a barrier, as is the fact that they’re temporary workers, so after five or six months, they’ve gone home and their membership lapses. For us as a union, it’s difficult to put resources into recruitment. But we are clear that any worker is always welcome to join Unite.”

Despite the challenges, Unite remains undaunted in its efforts to support seasonal migrant workers. In 2023, Unite joined organisations including the TUC, the Landworkers’ Alliance and others to form the Seasonal Worker Interest Group. This alliance is working to secure improvements to the SWS visa to safeguard migrant workers. 

Unite is also now working with the Edinburgh-based organisation, the Worker Support Centre, to develop a new app to support migrant workers on the seasonal worker visa. The app will be available in several languages, and it will signpost workers to resources that inform them of their rights in the UK. 

“The app is in part about educating people about their rights, but it will also let migrant workers know that we’re here for them, and that we can help them if they’re being abused or exploited,” Steve said. 

“It’s fantastic that Unite is at the forefront of this work. We need to work together to end the exploitation that is happening in our sector.”

By Hajera Blagg