Businessman arrested for employing foreign workers without Social Security registration and paying one only in food and toiletries

National Police officers have arrested the person responsible for a company specialising in gardening and swimming-pool maintenance in Fuerteventura, on suspicion of an offence against workers’ rights. According to the investigation, the company employed people from abroad without work permits, knowing that they were in the country with irregular immigration status, and imposed abusive working conditions on them.

The operation, led by the Local Immigration and Border Police Brigade in Puerto del Rosario, began last August after a worker reported the conditions under which he was working for a company. A second person later independently described similar events involving the same company.

Both said they had been recruited through messaging groups aimed at people with irregular immigration status. According to their accounts, they received between €30 and €40 for shifts lasting six to eleven hours, were paid in cash without receipts, and worked without contracts or registration with Social Security.

They also reported having no holidays or additional salary payments, as well as frequent late payments and wages left unpaid by the employer.

The workers also said the person under investigation had told them to flee or hide if the police or Labour Inspectorate arrived.

During the operation, officers set up surveillance and followed the suspect, locating him and a third worker at an apartment complex in Corralejo. The third worker later said he received no money and was given only food, groceries and toiletries.

The investigation, based on statements from the three people affected and police checks, culminated on 30 September in the arrest of the person responsible for the company. He was brought before the competent judicial authority on suspicion of an offence against workers’ rights.