Champagne problems: migrant vineyard workers treated 'like slaves'

Three people have been jailed by a French court for the "human trafficking of undocumented migrants" working "like slaves" picking grapes for the champagne industry, said France24.

A director of recruitment company Anavim, from Kyrgyzstan, and her two male associates, one from Georgia, one from France, were sentenced on Monday. The Anavim director, who was also found guilty of "concealing employment of workers", will serve two years in prison with another two years suspended, while the two men will be jailed for one year with a suspended term to follow.

The court heard that more than 50 individuals were exploited, forced to work 13-hour shifts, left with "no food or water" and housed in "appalling" conditions in an abandoned building.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The 'exploitation and misery' in a 'glamorous' business

The victims, mainly from West Africa, ranged in age from 16 to 65, and were recruited through a WhatsApp group which "promised 'well-paid work' in the Champagne region", said the BBC. Instead, workers were not given written contracts, were regularly underpaid, and some were not paid at all,

In September 2023, labour inspectors following a tip-off found workers living in "cramped and unhygienic conditions" in the "heart of champagne country". State prosecutor Annick Browne said their living quarters constituted a "serious breach of the occupants' safety, health and dignity". One worker put it bluntly, telling the court that "even animals enjoyed better conditions", said The Times.

The case has drawn fresh attention to the "exploitation and misery" behind this "glamorous" business, concerns that extend beyond working conditions to the very economics that sustain them. ​​Anavim sold grapes to subcontractors for prices far below the "standard market price of €6.35 [£5.51] per kilo" in 2023, sometimes as little as €0.45 (39p) per kilo, to a subcontractor which resold them to champagne houses for up to €0.60 (52p) per kilo. The subcontractor said that "at least 14 champagne houses" had purchased grapes picked by these exploited workers.

A system of 'Russian dolls'

The Anavim case is only the latest in a "string of controversies" to hit the champagne industry, said The Guardian. In an investigation published in December 2024, the newspaper described how four workers died from "suspected sunstroke" during the 2023 harvest.

Unions blame vineyards owners for "continuing to blindly accept cheap labour", with the justification that they are "helping African migrants" by giving them employment. The sector, they claim, is also responsible for "failing to ban exploitative labour providers" such as Anavim. Yet, regulation is difficult because of chains of subcontracting throughout the industry, resulting in a system of "Russian dolls", where one company subcontracts to another, and so on.

Vineyard owners have pointed the finger at these subcontractors, said Henry Samuel in The Telegraph. Ahead of the 2025 harvest – set to begin next month – authorities have ramped up efforts to tackle exploitation, including the deployment of 22 labour inspectors and 84 police officers "to oversee the harvest on a daily basis".