The National Union of Salaried, Rural and Related Workers (Unatra) denounced before the Government of Uruguay that several rural producers in Salto hire Argentine citizens, generally from Concordia (Entre Ríos), as “cheap labor” and are paid up to three times less than the nativestaking advantage of the exchange difference with Argentina.
The union’s president, Juan Carlos Albano, spoke about the problem with different media. in dialogue with The country, the trade unionist reported that Argentine citizens are transferred through the Salto Grande border crossing. According to Albano, this is done by businessmen in the citrus sector, who hire Argentines “as cheap labor, who are they pay them what they want, how they want and on top of that without any law“.
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“About 40 people cross as pedestrians over the Salto Grande bridge, but being about 200 meters from the border, already on the Uruguayan side, A bus is waiting for them that takes them to the different farms“, he denounced.
“There is a third party, an intermediary who is bringing workers from Concordia (…) and takes them to work in the farms, paying them well below the award and having them work in the dark, without any contribution or coverage“, Albano added to the Uruguayan media Underlinedat the same time that he affirmed that this Tuesday “an official from the Argentine embassy contacted us to internalize what is happening.”
According to unionists, Argentines earn 8 Uruguayan pesos per bag, while natives earn around 24 Uruguayan pesos.
Furthermore, he described the scenario as a “smuggling and poorly paid work”, explaining that “the situation continues, at least until Friday.” “We are talking about the fact that they are paid more or less 8 (Uruguayan) pesos per bag, while a Uruguayan worker earns approximately 24 pesos per bag,” she said.
According to the union’s complaint, on average each worker removes between 50 and 60 bags of oranges daily. This supposes about 1,500 Uruguayan pesos per day for the native workers in order, while the Argentines brought from Concordia they get about 500 Uruguayan pesos.
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For his part, Germán González, Secretary General of the Union of Rural and Agro-industrial Workers of Uruguay (UTRAU), said in dialogue with Informative Uruguay of Public Media what “they arrive at the rate of 6 or 8 buses with workers to work in conditions that are not those established by the regulations of our country”.
“Migration agents know they come to workBecause the workers themselves cross with their bags, they go through the immigration procedures to cross every day and on this side a bus from the Uruguayan company awaits them that takes them to the different plantations; and the return path is the same process. The Argentine buses never cross into Uruguay and the Uruguayans never cross into Argentina,” González described.
The complaints speak of around 40 Argentines who cross the border to work as “cheap labor.”
The union specified that the buses arrive from Argentina to be destined for establishments andin the departments of Salto and Paysandú, among others. In this sense, they indicated that the situation mainly affects towns such as Constitución, Belén and Quebracho.
“As a union organization, we do not disagree that there are foreign workers working in our country, but we ask ourselves what conditions they are in. Because workers come from Argentina and they do it in precarious conditions, in conditions that are not regulated by the regulations of our countrythat is so”, clarified González.
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As a result of the situation, the union maintained that “The general labor inspection has to activate the protocols with these companies”. For this reason, from UTRAU they urged a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Argentine ambassador in Uruguay, to address the problem and find a solution.
The complaint on the issue has already been filed with the Uruguayan Ministry of Labor. This Tuesday, Minister Pablo Mieres confirmed the receipt of the same in his portfolio, before which he sent an inspection “to identify where this situation was occurring.” “Until now we have not found where this phenomenon occurs. But have no doubt that if this is happening, we will sanction it accordingly,” he said, adding that they receive information from complainants to locate the properties in question.
MB / ED