Five-year prison sentence sought for farmer in Spain who made two employees live with pigs

The Cáceres public prosecutor's office has asked for five years in prison for the owner of a livestock farm in the province for an offence against the rights of two uncontracted workers who were forced to live with the pigs. They allegedly had to sleep on the floor, had no water or heating, they had to work without rest and had to pick up the animals' excrement by hand and without gloves, among other things.

According to the public prosecutor, in September and October 2023, the accused was the owner and sole administrator of this livestock company dedicated to the breeding of pigs. After the dismissal of one of his workers, and "in the knowledge of their precarious personal and economic situation", he verbally hired two undocumented Moroccan migrants to take care of the breeding of the livestock for at least the month of October. He promised them a monthly salary of 700 euros each (at that time the minimum wage was 1,080 euros) and free use of a house in the village.

However, according to the account of the public prosecutor's office reported by HOY newspaper, the real conditions were very different. Firstly, they began to work without administrative authorisation, nor a contract, nor social security registration. In addition, one of them only received 250 euros for the month's work and the other 150 euros, and they were never provided with accommodation.

The consequence of this breach was that the two workers were forced to occupy an unfurnished, windowless container on the farm itself, where they had no electricity, no heating, no shower or toilet facilities of any kind. They only had a water point which they shared with the animals on the farm.

As they did not have a kitchen, they heated their food in the pig trough with the firewood they could collect on the farm itself and slept on the floor. In addition, they worked seven days a week, "without a timetable and for as long as necessary, both day and night, and without any rest".

The prosecution reports that the two men's work consisted in the care, feeding and cleaning (collection of excrement and slurry) of the almost 1,000 pigs kept on the farm. They did everything manually, as they had not been provided with any machinery or tools.

"Despite the risks of accident or infection arising from contact with the animals, the accused did not provide them with any personal protective equipment (PPE), having to collect the slurry and defecation from the pigs without gloves, goggles or overalls, having only a pair of wellington boots," the public prosecutor's office declared.

The farmer had not carried out the obligatory evaluation and prevention of the biological risks of zoonosis to which the farm workers were exposed due to their direct contact with the animals, nor of the mechanical risks, "lacking any type of preventive organisation", the public prosecutor said.

As a result, one of the workers suffered a burn and was struck by an iron bar, which caused injuries to his face, hand and foot.

The prosecutor's office makes it clear in its indictment that the livestock farmer, when hiring them, “was aware of their irregular situation and the need to work” faced by the two Moroccan citizens, who accepted “due to their difficult personal and economic circumstances, being undocumented migrants, without resources, without training and with dependants in their country of origin”.

The prosecution accuses the farmer of two offences against workers' rights: one in the form of imposing illegal working conditions, for which it is asking for three years and three months' imprisonment, and another against health and safety, for which it is asking for 21 months' imprisonment. He is also asking for a fine of 5,400 euros, and to be disqualified from managing livestock companies for 21 months. He is also asking for compensation of 178.55 euros for the injured worker.

The preliminary hearing of the trial has been set for 25 September at the provincial court of Cáceres.