EXPRESSO REPORTS ON PORTUGUESE WORKERS IN ENGLAND

Portuguese workers in England

T&G MAKES HARDSHIP PAYMENTS TO WORKERS AT BERNARD MATTHEWS

There remain around 300 workers who have been laid off at Bernard Matthews.

INFORMATION IN PORTUGUESE

Direitos Laborais no Reino Unido

Informação do Departamento de Comércio e Indústria Britânico

Escolas em Herfordshire

Impostos

Ciencia nas Escolas

CONTACT

PORTUGUESE WORKERS’ PROJECT

TELEPHONE
0207 467 1256 (Leave Message)

EMAIL
ctp@tuc.org.uk

ADDRESS
Portuguese Workers Project
Trades Union Congress
Congress House
Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3LS

UNION'S £200 TURKEY WORKER LIFELINE

Lattest financial measure to help workers laid off at Bernard Matthews

BERNARD MATTHEWS ESCAPES PROSECUTION

Bernard Matthews escapes legal action. Financial Times
BM will not face prosecution despite highly critical reports by inspectors on food safety lapses at the plant. The Telegraph

What is the situation with workers' health?

"... if the media said anything it would be in English and many people would not understrand." "Vêm cá todos porque a comunicação social inglesa não diz nada sobre os portugueses e mesmo que dissesse era em inglês e muita gente não entende. Por isso temos de ver a televisão portuguesa para entender melhor "

DEBATE ON COMPENSATION FOR THE FOOD INDUSTRY

What is being debated?
Follow the debate here, in Parliament, with government and here and in a farmer's blog
There was a call for compensation of workers at Bernard Matthews. Is it being discussed?

BERNARD MATTHEWS REVEALS NEW BBQ DINING RANGE

Bernard Matthews Food Service has revealed a host of ideas for barbecues, including new turkey breast steaks, turkey medallions and, for kebabs, diced turkey breast from the company’s ingredients range. In meatinfo.co.uk

WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH THE WORKERS AT BERNARD MATTHEWS?

Staff are entitled to make a claim for redundancy four weeks after being laid off, but few have done so as most have been with the company for less than two years and will receive no redundancy payments. Reports the local paper

BERNARD MATTHEWS LAYS OFF YET MORE WORKERS

A further 35 workers are due to be laid off . Reports the BBC
This brings the total number of staff laid off to 270. In meatinfo.co.uk

TRADE UNION BRITISH-PORTUGUESE COOPERATION

Union organisation and representation is also vital – at a pan-European level. Cross-border co-operation isn’t wholly new (many unions operatein Britain and Ireland, for example) but it is becoming more common. This year, shipping officers’ union Numast began to merge with its Dutch equivalent to form Nautilus. The TUC has a long-standing agreement with the CGTP-IN in Portugal to represent Portuguese workers in Britain, renewed in April this year. Says Owen Tudor International Secretary, TUC

TUC COOPERATION WITH PORTUGUESE WORKER'S ASSOCIATION

Supporting trade union organisation in the underbelly of the British economy, if need be in innovative forms, is an essential weapon in the struggle against trafficking. The TUC's cooperation in Britain with the Portuguese Workers' Association and Federation of Poles in Britain and the bilateral agreements with their respective national trade unions have demonstrated that such approaches can yield real benefits for workers, not just in promoting their organisation in British trade unions while they are working in Britain, but also warning them in their home countries of the recruitment activities of unscrupulous labour suppliers there. Such trade union activity is resource intensive and Government support for the development of similar approaches with trade union organisations in other sending countries would be welcomed. TUC evidence to Parliament

PORTUGUESE WORKERS: STATS UK

More than 20000 Portuguese workers are employed in agriculture, cleaning and the hospitality industry

PORTUGUESE WORKERS IN LINCOLNSHIRE

- very long hours
- pay below minimum wage
- dangerous working conditions
BBC

PORTUGUESE WORKING IN SHEFFIELD

It is a well known fact that workers from many parts of Europe, particularly Portugal, and we have had many Portuguese workers over here who are exploited right to the hilt. Many of them are not prepared to tell us of the terms and conditions that have been imposed upon them until they have fallen foul of their employers over here. And then in a moment of pique they reveal everything that has been happening, the kind of earnings that they have been getting, and the fact that in terms of what they were paid to work in this Country they were seriously undermining our terms and conditions. This is the point that we have got to take on board. Sheffield Trades Union Council Delegate Meeting

THE PORTUGUESE WORKERS PROJECT - TRABALHADORES PORTUGUESES EM INGLATERRA

As a result of the protocol between the TUC - the British Trade Union Congress - and CGTP - the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers - the Portuguese Workers project is a source of immediate support for working people in the UK

TUC-CGTP PORTUGUESE WORKERS’ PROJECT

For Portuguese Speakers TUC - (Portuguese Workers’ Project) Tel: 0207 467 1256 (to leave a message) E-mail: ctp@tuc.org.uk
TUC Portuguese Workers’ Project, Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B3LS

THE MOVEMENT IN BRISTOL TO ABOLISH SLAVE TRADE

"The absence of conflict is not evidence of the presence of peace." The report of Marvin Rees from Bristol

FEMINIZATION OF WORKING POVERTY

More women then ever before are in work, but a persistent gap in status, job security, wages and education between women and men is contributing to the "feminization of working poverty", according to a new report by the International Labour Office (ILO): Global Employment Trends for Women Brief - 2007

THE REPORT OF THE WORLD COMMISSION

There is an urgent need to rethink current institutions of global economic governance, whose rules and policies it says are largely shaped by powerful countries and powerful players. The unfairness of key rules of trade and finance reflect a serious "democratic deficit" at the heart of the system. The failure of policies, it argues, is due to the fact that market-opening measures and financial and economic considerations have consistently predominated over social ones, including measures compatible with the prerogatives of international human rights law and the principles of international solidarity. Says the Report of the World Commission on the Social dimension of Globalization

FORCED LABOUR: DECEPTION OR FALSE PROMISES ABOUT TYPES AND TERMS OF WORK

The International Labour Organization - ILO- defines deception or false promises about types and terms of work as being forced labour

FORCED LABOUR IN EUROPE

EuropeTrafficking appears to be the main route into forced labour in Europe. While much of the attention has been focused on victims of sexual exploitation, there is growing evidence that many are being trafficked for forced labour in agriculture, domestic service, construction work and sweatshops. Victims of forced labour in Europe come mainly from Asia, former Soviet republics, Eastern Europe and Africa.

Go to the European Industrial Relations Observatory

THE WORLD OF MODERN CHILD SLAVERY

When it is mentioned we tend to think of people, almost always black people; degraded, abused and bound in chains, and we tend to think of such images, and the word slavery itself, as belonging to another era.

We do not see slavery as belonging to our world, not as something which is still happening today.
Reports Rageh Omar

TOMATO PICKING IN NORTH AMERICA

Guadalupe Gonzalez, 37, is one of the thousands of mainly-Hispanic migrants who work as tomato-pickers in the fields of Immokalee, southern Florida.

MODERN SLAVERY

The BBC reports

IN 1833

The Bishop of Exeter and three business colleagues were paid nearly £13,000 to compensate them for the loss of 665 slaves in 1833.

BERNARD MATTHEWS: BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

By an ex-Financial Times and future The Times journalist

LAYOFF STATS

From the US Bureau of Labour Statistics

BIRD FLU

"Authorities in charge of dealing with bird flu are finally acknowledging the role played by the
poultry trade in spreading the virus." Says newly released report from GRAIN

TIGHTER SANCTIONS FOR BREACHING HEALTH AND SAFETY LAWS

Following events at Bernard Matthews Hungary legislates. At cee-foodindustry.com

LIDL SUPERMARKETS AND EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE

"Ver.di, a huge German trade union with 2.5 million members, published a book called Das Schwarz-Buch Lidl Europa (The Black Book on Lidl in Europe). This was based on more than 3,500 accounts submitted by past and present employees. An updated 144-page English translation came out last year, detailing complaints from some of Lidl's 170,000-plus staff working in 23 European countries". Read the newspaper

EMPLOYMENT IN EAST ANGLIA AND BERNARD MATTHEWS

“There have been quite a few redundancies in the area recently, including the huge job loses at the Bernard Matthews factory, which has impacted upon the local labour market". Says the Manpower's operations manager for East Anglia

TRENDS: LAYOFF

Car and construction industry
Yahoo Finance
Reuters

WORKING IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY

Refrigerated and Frozen Foods

BIRD FLU MEASURES LIFTED

The last restrictions on the Bernard Matthews plant in Suffolk - the centre of last month's bird flu outbreak - have been lifted. BBC

BERNARD MATTHEWS ADVERT

Reports of the advert

"Some experts though do not understand the plan as many believe that the money should be put towards the workers who are being laid off." reports e-Canada now

BRITISH MEPs PUZZLED WITH BERNARD MATTHEWS PLANS AND CONCERNED WITH HUMAN COST TO WORKERS AND THEIR FAMILIES

As reported in Norwish Evening news 24

Richard Howitt MEP said today: “The human cost of these lay-offs is deeply distressing for many families in the county. We need to provide all the help and assistance they need.“It seems shocking it is announcing multi-million pound market plans and receiving about £1m of public funds from Europe for compensation. Workers are being treated in an appalling way.”

Norwich North MP Dr Ian Gibson said: “This plan seems incongruous to me. I would like to know what this strategy is all about because I cannot understand why the company is doing this when staff are being laid off.”

HONOUR FOR SERVICES TO CHARITY

Bernard postponed honour collection

SEVEN WORKERS WENT BACK TO WORK?

The company announced this week it had to temporarily lay off an additional 26 workers following the outbreak and subsequent drop in sales. A total of 183 staff had been temporarily laid off although seven had been re-engaged on March 5, she said.

This week was all launched the one-page advert. BBC

BERNARD MATTHEWS: COMPENSATION AND INVESTIGATION

POULTRY giant Bernard Matthews is to receive around £600,000 in compensation for the healthy birds culled following the H5N1 outbreak at its Holton plant last month.

This is despite the fact Defra confirmed this week that the investigation into the outbreak at the site – and whether or not the company was to blame – was still ongoing. Says Farmers Guardian

BERNARD MATTHEWS TAKES FULL-PAGE ADVERT IN NATIONAL PRESS

WHY DID BERNARD MATTHEWS RECRUIT PORTUGUESE WORKERS?

“We weren’t going to get the people locally . . . young people just don’t see the food industry as sexy.” The Times

WHEN WORKERS PROTESTED AT BERNARD MATTHEWS

BBC news in 2004

WORKING AT BERNARD MATTHEWS

"You can imagine working in that kind of environment on a long-term basis. It must be really quite awful."
The solicitor defending Palmer and Allan, Simon Nicholls, described the conditions in the unit as "appalling". BBC

POULTRY PROCESSED IN INFECTED PLANT

A Labour Euro MP said many members of the public would have assumed that the plant had shut down completely during the outbreak and would be surprised by the revelation. ITV news

Hundreds of tons of poultry passed through the Bernard Matthews plant and entered the food chain during the bird flu outbreak, the government has said. . BBC

What did the Secretary of State for Health say?
Also reported at Food Production Daily.com
More reports

THIS BRINGS TO 210 THE NUMBER OF WORKERS LAID OFF AT BERNARD MATHEWS

TSF

40 MORE WORKERS LAID OFF AT BERNARD MATTHEWS

This week

MEP ASKS QUESTIONS TO THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Workers rights in Great Britain? 22 February 2007

WHAT IS THE SITUATION OF WORKERS AT BERNARD MATTHEWS?

"We are all worried with our health and employment. We do not know what is going to happen ..."

WHAT IS BERNARD MATTHEWS SPENDING £7 MILLION ON?

Farmers Weekly Interactive says that Bernard Matthews plans to spend £7m on a “refreshment plan” and has yet to confirm how much will be allocated for the “recovery plan”.