Indonesian workers picking berries at a farm that supplies Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco say they have been racked up debts of up to £5,000 by unlicensed foreign brokers to work in Britain for a single season.
Pickers at the Kent farm were initially given zero-hours contracts, with at least one being paid less than £300 a week after deducting the cost of using a caravan, according to payslips and other documents considered as part of a Guardian investigation.
The fees they pay to secure the job include flights and visas, but several workers said they also faced thousands of pounds in extra charges from Indonesian brokers who promised substantial income. Under UK employment law, it is illegal to charge workers a fee to find them a job.
One worker described how he pledged his family’s home in Bali as collateral for the debt and feared losing it. “Now I’m working hard just to pay that money back,” he said. “Sometimes I can’t sleep. I have a family that needs my support to eat and meanwhile I think about the debt”.
Brexit and the war in Ukraine have created chronic labor shortages in the UK farming sector, pushing desperate farms and recruitment agencies to look further afield than Europe, where it can be harder to track down methods which local brokers use to find workers.
The revelations raise the possibility that fruit pickers could be trapped in debt slavery, preventing them from leaving the job without risking financial ruin. Migrant rights experts say the situation puts workers at risk of what is essentially forced labor.
The Home Office and the Gangmasters and Labor Abuse Authority (GLAA) are investigating the allegations and supermarkets have launched an urgent investigation into the issues raised by the Guardian.
Hundreds of Indonesian farm workers have been recruited to work in Britain this summer on seasonal worker visas, the immigration route created to deal with a shortage of farm workers after Brexit.
Dozens of pickers have been sent to Clock House Farm, near Maidstone in Kent, which supplies berries to most major supermarkets and has featured in an M&S advert.
Clock House said it was “deeply concerned” by the allegations and that it “would not have entered into an agreement with, or employed, any entity involved in this activity. [the charging of fees]”. He said he was working with authorities to investigate the claims.
The Indonesian workers were supplied by AG Recruitment, one of four agencies in the UK licensed to recruit on seasonal worker visas. AG denied any wrongdoing and said he knew nothing about Indonesian brokers taking money.
AG originally planned to recruit in Ukraine and Russia, but changed its plans when war broke out in February, weeks before the picking season began. Last year almost 20,000 Ukrainians came to Britain on seasonal worker visas, accounting for two-thirds of all those who arrived through the scheme.
AG had no previous experience in Indonesia and turned to Jakarta-based Al Zubara Manpower for help, which in turn turned to brokers on other islands who charged exorbitant fees to people they introduced, according to an Al agent Zubara
Each season, Clock House Farm employs an average of 1,200 workers to harvest raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and plums. Photograph: PA/Alamy
Invoices seen by the Guardian show Clock House workers owed between £4,400 and £5,000 to a Bali broker who supplied workers to Al Zubara Manpower.
While flights and visa fees are included in these debts, other charges included compulsory language training not required by the farms and hundreds of pounds for accommodation in Jakarta while waiting for visas. The debts are to be paid by bank transfer in monthly installments of up to £800, according to documents seen by the Guardian.
Sukiasa Ketut, a freelance agent who manages Al Zubara’s recruitment in Bali, said they used “many, many” freelance brokers who do not adhere to the rules. He acknowledged that the brokers pocketed money from the charges and said he felt “very sorry” for the situation.
He added: “We didn’t prepare well in terms of the rules of how to hire people, so we [went] to the recruiters and they did it their way. We were surprised that some were paid more and others less.”
Even workers who did not go through a third party were billed £2,500 by Al Zubara, with charges including a £560 training fee and a £362 visa fee, although the fee quoted by the Home Office was £259. Apart from the £1,478 for the flight and visa, there are not supposed to be any unnecessary extra fees under the seasonal worker scheme.
AG Recruitment managing director Douglas Amesz said he was unaware of the brokers being charged money and there is no suggestion he was aware of the fees. He said he personally recruited candidates in Jakarta and that applications and visas were only processed by AG.
The Bali workers met Amesz in Jakarta and remember him telling them that they should not pay any fee for work and that it was illegal. But they said local brokers told them not to reveal what they paid.
Clock House Farm employs an average of 1,200 workers each season to pick raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and plums.
It issued some arrivals from Indonesia on a zero-hours contract, seen by the Guardian, although this was against the rules for seasonal worker visas from April 2022. After the Guardian approached for comment in late July, the contracts were changed to guarantee a minimum of 20 hours.
Payrolls seen by the Guardian show workers sometimes worked far fewer hours and may earn less than £300 a week, raising concerns about their ability to repay debts. Clock House said it carried out an audit of its payroll and found workers were recruited for an average of more than 48 hours a week, which meant earnings of more than £2,000 a month.
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Clock House pays workers £10.10 an hour, subject to visa rules, and docks £10 a day from their wages to fund the caravans they live in on site.
Lawyers representing Clock House said the farm was “deeply concerned” by the recruitment issues highlighted by the Guardian “and the potential welfare and concern it would cause to temporary workers” and has reported the allegations to the GLAA.
He said he was previously unaware of any problems or the existence of other recruiters apart from AG Recruitment. He has requested that AG not supply any more workers from Indonesia until further investigation.
On working hours, Clock House said it was writing to all seasonal workers to confirm that at least 35 hours of work per week would be guaranteed on average over a 28-day period.
Amesz said he was “extremely concerned to learn of the allegations that have been raised” and AG was “co-operating fully” with the GLAA. He said Al Zubara did not handle any recruitment and AG did not ask him to outsource recruitment to other organizations or local intermediaries.
He added: “We continuously monitor all aspects of our supply chain and if we find egregious behavior anywhere, we are committed to change. In light of your investigation, we will redouble our efforts to ensure that all partners and affiliates understand the law, understand their responsibilities and understand our responsibilities under UK law and the GLAA regulations to protect the welfare of workers.”
A crop of strawberries grows inside a polytunnel at Clock House Farm near Maidstone. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
AG said Indonesia’s labor ministry had conducted an investigation and confirmed that Al Zubara had acted legally.
Leah Riley Brown, sustainability policy adviser at the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said on behalf of the supermarkets: “BRC members are committed to maintaining high standards of welfare for all people working in their retail chains. supply and are urgently investigating the allegations. lifted. The BRC continues to push for a single enforcement body to ensure that exploitation is prevented and workers’ rights are a top priority.”
Waitrose said it was concerned and would take the “necessary steps to ensure workers are treated fairly”. Sainsbury’s said the safe and fair treatment of workers was “extremely important” and it was working with government and industry “to introduce measures to prevent these practices from occurring”. Tesco said it did not condone the use of illegal recruitment fees charged to workers and it was vital that they were refunded in full.
The Home Office did not comment on specific allegations, but noted that the GLAA had no remit to investigate labor abuse and exploitation in other countries, saying it was up to foreign governments to investigate.
Andy Hall, an independent migrant rights specialist who researches issues of forced labor in supply chains in Asia, said: “It appears that the GLAA, Home Office, [Foreign Office] and also UK government officials working in UK embassies abroad have no mandate or authority to monitor or investigate actual or potential recruitment abuses in the home countries of migrant workers to the UK to work.
“As labor migration to the UK continues to grow in importance, this is a major black hole in terms of control and regulation that needs to be urgently addressed if the government is to deliver on its global promise of prevent forced labor”.
Hall said challenges with the current agricultural contracting model began with requiring workers to shoulder the cost of flights and visas, which he said created significant debt before any other charges. “Workers often don’t…