USA TODAY International Edition
ON ISRAELI FARMS, A BLEAK EXISTENCE FOR THAI WORKERS
Rights group: Health hazards, long hours, poor pay equal abuse
Several agricultural workers from Thailand stand near the side of the road next to their makeshift living quarters: large containers used for sleeping covered with plastic sheeting and corrugated iron. The place is dirty, open to wintry weather and floods when it rains.
The workers are there to lead a secret tour of a farm where they toil long hours.
USA TODAY joined Israeli workers’ rights organization Kav LaOved as it undertook a surreptitious visit to a Moshav ( farm) in Israel’s northern Negev region in response to a tip about workers’ rights abuses.
“If the farmer knew we were here there could be consequences for the workers,” said Noa Shauer, Kav LaOved’s coordinator for agricultural workers. “That could be not paying them, firing them completely or getting them deported from the country.”
About 3,500 farms employ 22,000 Thais, who make up 95% of agricultural workers in Israel, and farmers frequently exploit them as a cheap labor force, according to Kav LaOved.
Similar allegations came out a year ago in a report by Human Rights Watch. “Thai agricultural workers in Israel face serious labor rights abuses because Israeli authorities are failing to enforce their own laws,” the report said.
In Lakish, approximately 15 Thai workers are employed at this farm, mostly tending grapes. All are from rural Thailand, and they speak no Hebrew or English. They say they get less than the minimum wage of $ 6.40 an hour that farms are supposed to pay and get no overtime or sick pay.
The workers say they average $ 4.60 an hour for 10- hour workdays, six days a week. Out of that, the farmer deducts money for room and board and other fees. The workers also owe money to agencies that helped get them work visas.
They often live in former animal shacks, containers that used to store chemicals, and barns.
“This is not how I expected life to be like here,” said Dusit Doting, 38, one of the workers. Lacking proper training and safety equipment, Doting said he fell while working, breaking his leg.
He said he was unable to recover fully from the injury because his employer refused sick pay. Needing the money, Doting was back at work within three weeks.
“I had to go back to work quickly; I wasn’t being paid,” Doting said.
The pay is not given to them in full. Instead, the farmer gives them some of it in cash at the end of the month and sends the rest to the workers’ families in Thailand. The workers don’t know whether all the money they are due is actually sent back home.
By limiting the money the workers are given, the farmer effectively keeps them working on the farm.
It’s a common practice in this country, ensuring workers have no money to leave, travel elsewhere or find another agricultural job in Israel, according to the workers’ rights group.
Workdays can be exhausting: Kav LaOved noted examples of 18- hour days and one farm that forced its laborers to work 29 hours straight during peak harvest time.
Work- related illnesses from using chemicals without training and without proper safety equipment also can be a hazard.
Sutep Sesubang, 34, holds a paper pollution mask in his hands. “This is all I have to use,” said Sesubang, who sprays pesticides on the fields with no other protective clothing. He expressed surprise that he hasn’t yet become sick.
“I have a friend who got ill from the spray,” he said. “We don’t have anything to keep us safe. This mask is too simple, we have to cover the rest of our faces with our clothes to stop getting ill.
“Before I came here ( two years ago), I thought the conditions and everything would be good,” he said. “The employer here is just using me. I know we are getting less than what should be the minimum by law. The farmer sees us just as workers to make him money, not as humans.”
A group representing the farmers, the Moshavim Movement, did not respond to requests for comment about the complaints.
Israel and Thailand signed an agreement in 2011 to protect Thai workers’ rights. The Israeli government, which also did not respond to repeated requests for comment, has two inspectors checking on workers.
Shauer said Thai translators don’t accompany inspectors on their tours, so there is no communication with workers. Inspectors often speak solely to the farmer and leave without inspecting the living quarters.
“The Israeli government definitely knows about this sort of thing,” Shauer said. “The enforcement, though, is ineffective.”
She said farmers may be allowed to cut corners as a trade- off because the government doesn’t pay generous subsidies.
The government’s subsidy, Shauer said, amounts to “looking the other way.”