Gangmastering, with the Spartacus project the restoration of essential rights: work, housing, legal protection, training and inclusion in the province of Foggia and in the Bari area

ROMA – Il Spartacus Project aims to combat the endemic exploitation of labor (gangmastering) of 130 migrant laborers who live in the ghettos of Puglia. They are offered work and training opportunities, housing conditions outside the ghettos and access to fundamental rights worthy of a civil society. The goal is to create a sustainable model of contact between migrant laborers and virtuous companies to combat exploitation in agriculture and guarantee access to essential rights, such as work, housing, legal protection, training and social inclusion. The area of ​​intervention is the province of Foggia and the metropolitan area of ​​Bari.

The presentation on Friday 20th in Ordona. The project is promoted by theChico Mendes Associationl’NO CAP associationthe Community on the Road to Emmaus and the Rainbow Social Cooperativenon-profit organizations active in promoting ethical supply chains and social inclusion projects. The initiative, launched at the beginning of 2024, enjoys the support of Foundation with the South, Peppino Vismara Foundation e Siniscalco Ceci Emmaus Foundation. “Spartacus, together against gangmastering in Puglia”: Friday 20 September at 10:30 there will be a presentation of the project in Ordona, in the province of Foggia.

In Puglia, 40 thousand seasonal workers. Despite the lack of certain data, it is estimated that of the approximately 40,000 seasonal agricultural workers employed during the course of a year in Puglia, at least half operate in the Province of Foggia; of these, an increasingly high number of people are forced for various reasons to settle permanently or for significant periods of the year in informal settlements (among the best known Borgo Mezzanone, Tre Titoli, Torrette Antonacci) lacking the minimum conditions for a dignified life.

Most of them are engaged in agriculture. Most of the foreigners who stay in the Capitana territory are employed in agricultural work without a regular work contract or with contracts that are apparently regular but which in reality present significant elements of irregularity, creating and generating the so-called phenomenon of “grey” work.

The toxic figure of the intermediary. The lack of a formal placement channel for agricultural work within the settlements – but also outside – fuels the phenomenon of intermediation by gangmasters, who exploit the vulnerability of foreign laborers forced to work up to 12 hours a day (especially in the summer months), with an hourly wage of between 3.50 and 4.50 euros per hour, well below what is indicated by the national legislation that regulates collective agreements in the sector. Often, the gangmaster deducts the costs of transportation, food and accommodation from the daily wage.

How and where the Spartacus project works. The project Spartacus acts on different areas of intervention:

– The work. To help overcome conditions of illegality;

– The welcome. To improve housing conditions, helping to overcome the system of informal settlements and ghettos;

– The training. To enhance technical skills and civic and linguistic knowledge to promote social integration;

– The Services. For the safe transportation of the labour force and for legal assistance and support in obtaining residence permits;-

– Networking. To find shared solutions with the various entities involved.