Three men and a Limburg mushroom farm have been sentenced on appeal to significantly lower penalties than initially imposed by the court. The hundreds of affected Polish seasonal pickers will receive no back payment or compensation.
The director of the farm was sentenced last week to 9 months in prison instead of two years, for forgery and possession of weapons and ammunition. The Court of Appeal found that it was insufficiently proven that forced labor or exploitation had taken place.
In 2012, the police raided the farm because 600 Polish workers were allegedly being exploited. The hundreds of Polish seasonal workers had to perform their tasks under very poor conditions. They also had to pay part of their wages for housing, food, and health insurance.
Additionally, they were paid below the minimum wage. At that time, the company was fined 75,000 euros and was declared bankrupt shortly after the raid.
The court found it proven that the director ordered forgery by installing skim modules and unfair rounding in the time clock system for the Polish employees. As a result, fewer hours were recorded than were actually worked, and the pay slips did not reflect the actual hours worked.
According to the judges, although there was indeed poor employer conduct, this does not automatically mean there was labor exploitation or modern slavery. The case files contained insufficient indications of exploitation of the Polish workers or systematic poor treatment.
The farm used ‘tampering software’: the aforementioned skim modules in the time clock system that caused the Polish workers to be underpaid. The man who developed this software has now been sentenced to 60 hours of community service.
The other man responsible for payroll administration was sentenced on appeal to 240 hours of community service. This sentence is lower than the 6 months' imprisonment previously imposed by the court, mainly because the matter is only being handled now, after almost ten years.
The Public Prosecution Service had demanded compensation for the affected Polish workers. The court rejected this claim, as the extent of the damage suffered by the workers was not easily established.