The Carabinieri of the Castrovillari Company and the Labor Inspectorate Unit of Cosenza, as a result of a detailed activity carried out, executed a preventive seizure decree against MDL, cl. ’67, investigated, on the basis of the preliminary investigations carried out during the preliminary investigation phase, of illicit intermediation and exploitation of labour.
The investigations coordinated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Castrovillari, directed by Dr. Alessandro D’Alessio, and conducted by the military personnel through observation, control and shadowing services, have made it possible to ascertain how the employees of the agricultural and breeding company cattle worked 7 days a week, including holidays, with exhausting hours that went from 04:00 in the morning until 20:00, with a two-hour lunch break and occasional, sporadic and short breaks during work.
The monitoring carried out over a long period between August and October 2023 allowed the Carabinieri to ascertain, with high statistical reliability, how the “typical” working day was 11/12 hours of work per day, without any weekly rest.
Furthermore, during the investigative activity, an even more alarming fact emerged, namely that some regularly employed workers lived inside a container, owned by the owner of the company, in poor hygienic-sanitary conditions consisting of a room used as a bedroom with three stations, two of which with a mattress placed on the floor – without a base or structure – and one made with only blankets. A room devoid of usability and habitability, without heating systems which, also due to the widespread dirt, made the living conditions unhealthy, irregular and lacking in minimum standards of comfort.
The investigations led by the Judiciary of the Pollino capital have shed light on the serious situation of labor exploitation which forced Italian and Indian workers to receive daily wages of only around 28 euros, in total divergence from what was established by the national collective labor agreements. .
Precisely to prevent this situation from continuing over time, the entire company sector, the immovable and movable assets, including approximately 300 cattle and various vehicles, with an estimated value of approximately 2,000,000 euros, in execution of the preventive seizure decree issued by the GIP of the Court of Castrovillari they were seized and entrusted to the control of a Judicial Administrator, to prevent the owner from being able to reorganize and resume control of the company.
It is understood that, given the current phase of the proceedings, still in the context of preliminary investigations, the elements acquired lead to a judgment of circumstantial gravity, which is also shared by the judge, pending the elements that the suspect will want to adduce in his favor and which will be subject to verification.
