Polish ‘prison’ where UK blue passports are made faces probe

THE Polish factory that produces Britain’s blue post-Brexit passports is facing an investigation by the country’s largest trade union after The Mail on Sunday revealed staff feel underpaid and poorly treated.

Workers at the factory in Tczew, northern Poland, earn as little as £400 a month – almost half the average wage in the area.

Staff said they were quitting to earn more money as fishmongers or waitresses, while one complained that working conditions were so poor that the factory could ‘feel like a prison’.

Now, the leading Polish workers’ union, Solidarnosc, is to launch an investigation at the factory owned by French multinational company Thales. Union chief Krzysztof Dosla said: ‘We have a branch in Tczew and I will ask colleagues to look into this problem. Our organisation is not directly in this plant, but if something bad is happening in it, we will quickly find out. We will definitely investigate this case.’

The Mail on Sunday was told that wages at the factory were so low that some staff had been forced to claim paid sick leave so that they could make additional money in a second job. One ex-employee said she used to earn just over £400 a month after tax helping to produce Polish identity cards at the factory. The average wage in the Polish manufacturing industry is £745 a month.

Thales, whose contract with the UK Government to produce passports is worth £260 million, said: ‘We are a very dynamic employer in Poland, fully respecting healthand-safety regulations.’