Caporalato, controls all over Italy: almost 53% of companies irregular

The Carabinieri Corps, in order to reinforce the fight against the phenomenon of 'caporalato' (forced labour), planned a structured law enforcement campaign, carried out from 1 to 10 August throughout the country, with the establishment of inspection teams composed of Carabinieri from the territorial divisions and specialised personnel from the Carabinieri Labour Protection Command. The activity was preceded by a careful analysis of the data in the databases available to the Carabinieri, in order to identify companies potentially at risk.

At the end of the activities, 958 companies were inspected, of which 507 were found to be illegal (52.92%). During the inspections, 4,960 work positions were checked, of which 1268 were found to be irregular (of these, 346 were 'illegal' workers); of the workers checked, 2314 were non-EU workers, of whom 213 were found to be 'illegal', and 29 were minors, of whom 9 were found to be 'illegal'.

One hundred and forty-five business suspension orders were issued (15.13% of the 958 companies inspected), of which 75 for 'illegal work', 41 for serious violations of health and safety in the workplace and, in 29 cases, for both; in addition, 144 warning orders were issued and 848 administrative prescriptions were issued.

As regards the fight against criminal conduct, a total of 486 people were referred to the Judicial Authorities for violations of the Consolidation Act on Immigration, health and safety at work and other criminal offences. Of these 486 people, 19 were referred to the state of liberty for the offence of illegal brokering and exploitation of labour, so-called 'caporalato' (Article 603 bis of the Criminal Code), ascertaining the criminal conduct in the provinces of Turin, Brescia, Mantua, Verona, Piacenza, Ascoli Piceno, Perugia, Rieti, Rome, Teramo, Pescara, Caltanissetta, Siracusa and Nuoro; as a result, 50 workers were freed from exploitation. Finally, penalties and fines amounting to more than EUR 4 million were imposed and 3 vans were seized for transporting farm labourers to the fields.