More cases of the exploitation of agricultural workers are likely following the discovery of vegetable pickers left to scavenge for food in Cornwall. The Gangmasters Licensing Authority, which revoked the licence of Baltic Work Team, based in Redruth, has other similar cases pending and believes the Cornish case was by no means a one-off. A group of 40 Bulgarian workers picking courgettes and other vegetables went unpaid for 35 days and the case was considered so serious the licence was revoked with immediate effect, only the second time the GLA had deemed this necessary. A spokesman for the GLA said: "We have some cases coming up, one of which could potentially involve multiple labour users and could involve unlicensed labour providers being used. Quite often cases involve a large amount of migrant labour but there is also indigenous labour involved as well." He added: "We are relatively new and there has been a peak to start with so we are taking the major cases where worker welfare is at stake before moving on to smaller cases of illegality. But it would not surprise me if there were other examples of abuse of labour. I don't believe we have seen the last one." Workers at Baltic Work Team complained to the Bulgarian Embassy about their treatment and the Embassy informed the GLA.The company's licence was revoked in February and the case went to appeal, which the GLA won, but Baltic Work Team was given extra time to trade so it could reapply for a licence and show it had improved its performance. "However, we received information from the Embassy and went back in and found these problems on top of the old ones," said the GLA spokesman. He said a system was now in place to enable disaffected workers to complain about exploitation. "We now have an online reporting form in five languages and there is an exchange of information between government departments, and the public give us information on occasions."

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