The Senate on Monday approved a
bill against gangmasters with 190 in favor, none against and 32
abstaining. The measure now goes to the Lower House.
In May, three government ministers signed a protocol with
Italy's southern regions to crack down on gangmasters and combat
the exploitation of day laborers, many of them recent
immigrants.
Farm Minister Maurizio Martina, Labor Minister Giuliano
Poletti, and Interior Minister Angelino Alfano signed the
protocol backed by CGIL, CISL and UIL trade union federations,
grassroots farm associations, and the regions of Basilicata,
Calabria, Campania, Puglia and Sicily in the south, as well as
Piedmont in the north.
The new protocol calls for coordination between local
police, labor inspectors, and other officials to root out and
punish exploiters, protect vulnerable day laborers, and promote
lawful and ethical workplace practices.
Italy has seen a string of labor code violations in its
fields and vineyards, with unscrupulous employers recruiting
recent immigrants for starvation wages.
In one such case, prosecutors in the Tuscan city of Prato
said earlier this year that 12 suspects were under investigation
for racketeering with intent to exploit undocumented foreign
workers in the vineyards of Chianti, which is famous all over
the world for its wine.
They identified a Pakistani couple - named as Tarik
Sikander and his wife - who recruited new arrivals from Pakistan
and sub-Saharan Africa and brokered them out to five Chianti
wine producers - who thought they were paying the workers union
rates - and pocketed the difference. Investigators say they
documented the refugees being beaten and made to work in
flip-flops in winter.
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