In the collection work, it has been found that differences between day laborers increase and ethnic segmentation is reinforced. On the other hand, in warehouses – traditionally feminised – the quality requirements have meant greater versatility and control of the space, behaviour and body of the workers, although they have also caused the collective agreement to be fulfilled more strictly.

The article, published in Revista Española de Sociología, explains that since the end of the twentieth century “quality has been a central element in the configuration, stratification and operation of global agri-food chains”. Therefore, Torres and Pérez have observed to what extent these quality requirements affect the production, handling, marketing, and distribution of Valencian citrus products.

Thus, they have shown that staff fragmentation has increased, both in the field and in the warehouses. The differences are notable between workers with a fixed discontinuous contract, those who are temporary companies and cooperatives, and those who work in a temporary agency. As Torres explains, although not all temporary agencies behave in the same way, many of them commit labour irregularities such as the effective collection of a lower salary than that established by the agreement or fraud in the workdays declared in the field, less than the real ones.

This fact is directly linked to a more than current phenomenon: ethnic segmentation. In the countryside, the discontinuous permanent workers who work for companies and cooperatives – where the agreement is fulfilled – are usually Spanish, while in the temporary employment agencies many of their workers are migrants. In the investigation, some of the affected workers explain the conditions in which they find themselves. One of them tells how the reduction in declared days has harmed him: “When you go to collect unemployment, then (they tell you) ‘you scarcely…’ and you say ‘well, the entire 120-day campaign’, they say, ‘no, if you have barely 50, 60 here’, you say, damn man, where are the rest of the days?… And you are going to get paid and you end up homeless”.

The question, Torres indicates, is not whether they are hired or not, since there has been a notable change in this regard. While in the past decade there were many workers who were not hired, today the vast majority are. According to the researcher, the problem is that irregularities continue to be committed. “It is very difficult to try to stem the tide, it is much more difficult to control it, because the companies show the contract and that’s it”, he explains.

Charge for kilos collected

On the other hand, the investigation shows that most of the products are collected piecework, that is to say, that the workers are paid per kilos collected, unlike the daily method, in which the hours worked are paid. The piecework implies a greater demand, speed, and selection, but the salary is usually the same or lower, in addition to that it is more likely that errors are commented (so they can suffer discounts). The increase in rates and quality demands in parallel also have consequences in the second step of the chain since warehouse workers can receive discounts on their salary if the quality department or customers detect that their products do not meet all the requirements.

Despite the fact that in the warehouses there has been an improvement in working conditions in general thanks to a greater union presence, the study indicates that the differences also remain between permanent discontinuous workers and temporary agency workers, where there are more migrant women and they tend to be more precarious, as in the field. Likewise, many of the workers in the warehouse complain about the lack of recognition of diseases of high incidence caused by their work activity, such as back problems or carpal tunnel syndrome.

Article: Torres, F. and Pérez, Y. (2021). “Los últimos y las últimas de la cadena. Calidad y trabajo en el sector citrícola valenciano”. Revista Española de Sociología, 30 (1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.22325/fes/res.2021.19