Labour Exploitation in the Italian Agricultural Sector: “The Way of Production”
Authors: Paola Cavanna  
Published: July 2024

Despite a solid legal framework, labour exploitation seems to be “the way of production”in the Italian agricultural sector, built around the goal of cutting costs and maximisingprofits through underpayment of wages. Long working hours and underpayments,physical and psychological violence, the control over the workers’ mobility and extrapaymentsfor food and water have led the media to decry the existence of “modernslavery”. The paper aims to provide a picture of the phenomenon, overcoming a stereotypicalperception of victims while challenging the assumption that criminal law isthe panacea. Indeed, the contention is that a better understanding of the phenomenonand its complexities might suggest a more promising range of tools for action.The article is divided into three sections. After an introduction of the issues at stakewithin the EU context, official statistics on recorded crime at the global, European andnational levels are presented and their reliability discussed. All available estimates andofficial statistics on recorded crime can only ever show a fraction of the full volumeof the phenomenon as defined, captured and processed by institutional mechanisms.Importantly, victims – the key resources of information – are reluctant to report theirexperiences to the authorities since they fear deportation. This places huge challengeson the identification of potential cases. The second section focuses on the Italianagriculture and its own peculiarities (e.g. prevalence of undeclared work and illegalgangmastering). Italy is at the centre of the reflection to provide tangible exampleswithin a global perspective, at the intersection of labour market and migration policies.Four cases are analysed to grasp the complexity of the context in which exploitationoccurs: i) a case of slavery in the Apulian countryside; ii) “double exploitation” ofRomanian women in Sicilian greenhouses; iii) the case of the Sikh community exploitedin Central Italy, and iv) exploitative working conditions in the “quality food” productchains in the North of Italy. This paper seeks, indeed, to follow the teaching thatcriminology stands as the empirical basis for criminal law. Such a focus on cases isintended to develop a conceptual model of the business of labour exploitation to deepenthe understanding of its modus operandi, expanding the knowledge about how labourexploitation allows businesses to turn a profit. The very lesson to be learned is that,in Italy, labour exploitation seems to be “the way of production” rather than a “few badapples”. As a result, consumers can easily come into contact with labour exploitationwhenever they eat, although they are increasingly pressing companies to act responsibly.The third section investigates who is a victim of labour exploitation, bearing in mindthat stereotypes influence social perceptions regarding victims of crime. The realitycoming out is more complex and fraught than what media usually report. Indeed,media tend to reproduce stereotypical images, involving extreme violence and control,organised crime groups and illegal immigration, missing a wider discussion of whatwould need to be changed to prevent exploitation from penetrating food supplychains. Subsequently, the concept of corporate crime is introduced. This may helpto conceptualise labour exploitation as made up by the organisation’s structure, alsoshedding light on labour exploitation as a form of negligence by the State. Finally,specific policy recommendations are made for strengthening the currently availableredress, leaving criminal law tools as the last resort. Society needs a long-term targetedand multi-level strategy addressing, in a coherent way, the many intertwined factorsthat leave workers vulnerable, both individual factors (e.g. poverty, discrimination,precarious legal status, etc.) and deficiencies in the regulation of labour market andthe global economy (e.g. general lack of economic opportunities, cuts in the socialservices budgets, lack of legal and viable migratory channels, etc.). On the contrary,toughening the State response to vulnerable workers who have fallen in breach of immigration regulations will have the effect of locking more people into systemsof “modern slavery” without any hope of protection from the law.Going beyond the most traditional “black letter” methodology in legal research,the paper addresses “law in action”. Researching “in law”, legal texts and relevantcase-law will work as a backup to understanding the current legal frameworkaimed to counter labour exploitation. In researching “about law”, the economicand sociological implications are taken into account in order to gain empiricalknowledge and an understanding of how the law and legal proceedings impact onthe parties involved. This is done also for the purpose of evaluating the effectivenessof the current (intertwined) legal framework and, if needed, to facilitate a futurechange in the regulations.