The National Police have arrested two men - one aged 50, the other 41, both originally from India - for serious breaches of worker rights.
The two, in charge of Indian and Colombian restaurants, were forcing employees to work more than twelve hours every day, sometimes without employment contracts and without being given any day off for years. More than 200 people have worked at these restaurants.
On Wednesday, the National Police carried out simultaneous inspections at the restaurants - seven in all - and arrested the two men. The police were acting on a complaint of worker exploitation made by an employee.
In addition to the conditions outlined above, workers received no extra payments or any pay-offs when their employment ended. The police say that these labour practices enabled an expansion of the business to the seven restaurants - one in Playa de Palma, three in the Joan Miró area, two in Palmanova and one in Cala Bona.
Employees of different nationalities accepted the conditions because of their precarious financial situations, because they needed to be employed in order to renew their residence permits and because they feared losing their only source of income. Indian workers were especially discriminated against and suffered worse conditions than others.
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In this day and age, this is unbelievable that people should be treated in this way. The judicial system needs to send a message to the business community that this will never be tolerated and I would suggest if these men immigrated here they should be deported. Harsh maybe but if they came here to seek a better life at the expense of others, then this punishment certainly fits the crime and does not burden Spain with the cost of keeping them behind bars. Besides, they wouldn't like the prison food anyway!