Glastonbury under fire for exploiting European workers on zero hour contracts

Glastonbury festival has been accused of exploiting hundreds of workers from the European Union after hiring them on zero hour contracts then sacking them two days later, according to The Independent.

Around 700 people had travelled from countries including Czech Republic, Latvia, Spain and Poland expecting two weeks of paid work litter picking, helping with the momentous task of cleaning up Worthy Farm after the festival finishes.

However, around 75 per cent of these workers were left stranded and financially worse off after organisers cancelled their contracts earlier than expected, with good weather conditions and on-site litter crews working through the festival contributing to less rubbish than usual needing cleared.

The news follows Jeremy Corbyn’s rapturously received appearance at the festival, in which he outlined his view that young people should not "accept low wages and insecurity as just part of life".

The Independent has obtained video footage of workers obstructing a vehicle in protest being manhandled by a person understood to be a supervisor, who tells them they should appreciate the two days’ work.

A Czech worker, Simon Kadlcak, has spoken to The Independent about his experience. He said: "We found out quite soon that there was not as much garbage as usual, so there was less work. Rumours were being spread about what would happen and there was no proper information.”

After two days an estimated 600 workers were laid off with only 100 being kept on.

Kadlcak added: "There are people without work still sleeping in tents here because they have nowhere to go, they were expecting two weeks of work. One person tried to find us other jobs in the area and get food for us for the weekend.

"The organisers have to have known that there was not enough work for that amount of people. No one spoke to us before, there were these rumours and people are quite nervous about it. No one let us know until yesterday afternoon, they just put up a list of the 100 people who were able to keep working.”

He also noted that many of the workers had booked return flights home and had to remain in the UK jobless until they could return home, facing losses from their travel, food and accommodation expenses.

Cheryl Roberts, a British woman working on the site, has expressed shame at the treatment of the workers, saying: "Corbyn was the headliner of Glastonbury, really, he attracted the largest crowd with his speech. So for Glastonbury not to have the decency to feed a group of workers that have travelled thousands of miles to be here, after supporting his speech about immigration and foreign workers… it just reeks of hypocrisy and is quite frankly embarrassing."

In video footage of an on site protest, a supervisor is seen telling a worker: “Everyone is on a zero hours contract. We have no commitment to feed these people, they’re on paid jobs, their job is over.

“I don’t think it is the responsibility of Glastonbury or anyone else to feed these people. They are responsible adults who can feed themselves… no one is stopping them from leaving the farm to get food.”

Robin Denton, a 53 year old from South Africa who has been helping with the litter picking operation after Glastonbury every year since 1997, said he had “never seen the people treated so badly”.

He added: “I’ve seen how things have changed and I think the main problem is the zero hour contract. It says ‘if we don’t need you, goodbye’.

A spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn has responded to the criticism, stating: "Labour is committed to ending zero hour contracts, which was included in our manifesto, and the next Labour government will end zero hour contracts."

The Independent has contacted Glastonbury festival organisers about the matter and they have declined to comment.

[Via: The Independent]

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Staff Writer, follow him on Twitter