Livorno: excessive hours and paltry wages, 10 arrests for labor exploitation

The Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Livorno are executing an order of pre-trial detention in prison, issued by the GIP of the Court of Livorno, against 10 Guests of Pakistani nationality seriously suspected, in various capacities and in conjunction with each other, of the crime of "illicit intermediation and labor exploitation".

The investigation called “Piedi Scalzi”, coordinated by the local Public Prosecutor's Office and conducted by the Operational and Radiomobile Unit of the Piombino Company with the support of the Carabinieri Labor Inspectorate Unit of Livorno, has allowed us to reconstruct theillicit use of labor carried out by 6 owners of individual companies operating in the agricultural sector, who, also making use of other subjects for the recruitment, daily transport and control of workers, have employed, taking advantage of their state of need, 67 citizens of Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationality hosted at the Extraordinary Reception Centre – CAS “Le Caravelle” in Piombino (LI) for the harvesting of vegetables/olives as well as cleaning of vineyards on land in the provinces of Livorno and Grosseto.

In particular, the exploitation indices of employed non-EU citizens were ascertained, noting theabsence of a regular employment contract, a repeated violation of the regulations relating to working hours (with peaks of 10 hours a day, without the expected breaks) and to the economic treatment (with fees always well below the 10,56 euros envisaged by the negotiation. In one case even equal to €0,97 per hour), with systematics violation of safety and hygiene regulations.

During the operation, a decree was also executed preventive seizure of €45.000 as profit ascertained by INPS following the failure to pay social security and insurance contributions for illegally employed workers.