By Ralph Barnett

A SUFFOLK-BASED gangmaster, who supplied hundreds of migrant agricultural workers to companies including Angus co-operative Grampian Growers and forced them to work in what have been described as “shocking conditions,” has had his licence to operate revoked.

The Gangmasters Licensing Authority, which was set up following the tragic death of 23 Chinese cockle-pickers in Morecambe Bay in 2004, yesterday revealed the outcome of an investigation which uncovered a disgraceful story of forced labour in 21st century Britain.

The investigation revealed shocking conditions imposed on mainly Polish migrant workers used for daffodil picking throughout the UK, who were threatened with huge deductions from wages and even more sinister threats to involve their families in their home country if they left the employment of the gang- master or failed to pay money to him.

Timberland Homes Ltd director Jonathan Beckson, trading as Timberland Homes Recruitment, was said by the GLA to have also allowed workers to be housed in sub-standard accommodation and transported in prohibited, uncertified vehicles.

Timberland was based in Brandon, Suffolk, and supplied workers to Winchester Growers in Cornwall and to Grampian Growers.

The GLA has passed its information on this case to the UK Human Trafficking Centre and reports regarding the vehicles’ use in transporting the workers have been submitted to the procurators fiscal.

GLA investigators found a threatening letter to workers stating that they were not free to leave before the end of the contract without paying £700.

If they did not have the money, this would be recovered from the workers or their families back home.

Timberland was subcontracting workers from an unlicensed Polish gangmaster and some workers stated that they received just £24 for a nine- hour day and 4p per bunch of flowers picked.

No timesheets were used, so pay could not be accurately recorded, and the legally-binding Scottish agricultural minimum wage was not being paid.

Prohibition notices had been imposed on six Timberland minibuses in Cornwall but the company flouted the law by transporting the workers to Scotland in these vehicles and continued to use these minibuses for transporting workers in Angus, Aberdeenshire and Perthshire on a daily basis—a matter which has been drawn to the attention of the Tayside and Grampian police forces.

The GLA investigation found that workers did not give their consent for transport and accommodation deductions; were charged for the protective clothing needed to carry out the job— £20 for a jacket and trousers; and lived six to eight to a room in converted farm buildings at Crofts Farm, Redford, Carmyllie, that were not licensed as houses of multiple occupation.

Paul Whitehouse, chairman of the GLA, said, “There is another world out there that the vast majority of us are lucky enough not to see.

“Some labour providers are doing a great job in a tough industry, but the rogue gangmasters are making workers’ lives a misery and it is these crooks that we are committed to catching.”

No one from Grampian Growers, which is based at Logie, between Montrose and Marykirk, was available to comment on the situation yesterday but a spokesman for the GLA said, “We received full cooperation from Grampian Growers and Winchester Growers during our investigation into Timberland Homes Recruitment.

“These firms were not under investigation by us—the focus of our operation was the gangmaster.

“We would also point out that the investigation focused on the transport, living conditions and forced labour issues and not on the working conditions at Grampian Growers or Winchester Growers.’

The Grampian Growers co-operative represents 18 bulb growers who produce five to seven million bunches of daffodils and 4000 to 5000 tonnes of daffodil bulbs annually.

The flowers are centrally packed at Logie and transported in refrigerated trailers to supermarkets in the United Kingdom and Europe and by air to the USA and Canada.