April 7, 2010
A local fruit farm has been ordered to pay substantial sums to 2 Polish workers forced to live in “appalling conditions”. A total of £26,000 is to be paid by David Leslie Fruits for withholding wages and for racial discrimination.
Dundee Employment Tribunal was told David Leslie had an “arbitrary and discretionary approach” to paying wages and he was also accused of frightening and humiliating his staff.
During their time on the farm the 2 workers lived among 200 workers in cramped metal cabins with no running water or lockers for personal items.
After working for a month the 2 workers asked Mr Leslie what their rate of pay was after some workers received between £1 and £5 per hour. The men were then threatened and then sacked but later reinstated when other workers who relied on their translation skills said they would go on strike. The pair then presented a 145 name petition calling for fair wages and payment of the minimum wage after which they were accused of stealing fruit, told to collect their belongings and escorted off the farm by police, who took them to Perth bus station and told them to travel to Glasgow or Edinburgh. One of pair flew home but the other was forced to hitch as he had no money.
The Dundee Employment tribunal held that the pair had been subjected to serious discrimination having been pushed into a situation in which they feared they would be left stranded and homeless in a foreign country with no money and the prospect of being imprisoned for an offence that had been fabricated.
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