Dutch boss jailed for exploiting Polish workers

This 13 May 2015 Dutch video is about the exploitation of Polish women workers at the Prime Champ corporation in the Netherlands.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV:

Mushroom grower two years in jail for exploiting Polish workers

Today, 14:58

The former director of the Limburg mushroom company Prime Champ [Gerard Verdellen] will spend two years in jail for exploiting six Polish workers. The company kept false records and had false salary specifications. Prime Champ must also pay a fine of 75,000 euros.

4.5 years imprisonment had been proposed by the public prosecutor. The penalty is lower because according to the judge fewer people were exploited than the public prosecutor said. The court has also taken into account in the verdict that the criminal case has been running for a few years.

Fraudulent software

Three Polish employees have been acquitted, 1Limburg reports. Another Prime Champ boss will spend half a year in jail, and a hired computer specialist who installed fraudulent software received a community service penalty of 100 hours.

The women worked from 2009 to 2012 under poor conditions. Justice called the exploitation of women basically a form of modern slavery.

Pass out

Research by the inspectorate shows that pickers were recruited in Poland for the mushroom farm with beautiful stories, but that all the promises on wages, housing and working conditions were not fulfilled.

On the contrary; Polish women worked very long days, and they hardly ever had a day off. Early termination of the employment contract meant a penalty.

They had to pick day after day very many mushrooms to earn the minimum wage. That high pick norm was not feasible for the majority of the pickers. According to witnesses, some women fainted from fatigue.