Heatstroke kills farm worker
Union warns that fruit pickers are not being provided with shade to escape the hottest times of the day
AN ALLEGED gangmaster has been arrested after an illegal worker died of heatstroke on Saturday.
According to state news agency EFE, the victim is a 42year-old man from Nicaragua who was working in fields at the village of El Esparragal, near Lorca in temperatures that reached 44°C. The man was taken to a health centre suffering from ‘serious effects of heat’ at around 15.30.
Doctors immediately rang the local hospital to ask for an ambulance as the man was in a ‘very bad condition’.
He lost consciousness soon afterwards and died while being treated by paramedics who arrived in the ambulance.
Although many media outlets reported that the victim was ‘abandoned’ at the health centre by his boss, a judicial source told EFE that the farm worker had been left in the hands of the health workers.
Also, he had been driven to the health centre to save time instead of calling an ambulance.
However, a 50-year-old Ecuadorian man has been arrested and faces charges for contravening employees’ rights as the victim was not registered with the social security. EFE noted that the Nicaraguan man was in Spain illegally and had no official documentation.
The Ecuadorian suspect runs a company which takes groups of day workers to pick fruit and harvest other crops around the Murcia region.
A spokesman for the Comisiones Obreras union stated that the death of the worker shows once again that guidelines are not being followed and employees are being forced to work in inhuman conditions.
He noted that high temperatures are ‘extremely dangerous’ for outdoor workers and can result in death due to heatstroke.
He added that farmhands are not being provided with shade where they can escape the hottest times of the day or given water to drink.
The union has called for more inspections to be carried out and warned that the current shortage of checks is putting lives at risk.