MURCIA – An employer riles public opinion by advertising a job vacancy in Murcia with earnings of one euro per box of lemons harvested.
Furthermore, according to newspaper La Opinión de Murcia, the employer is forcing its staff to violate the corona rules. They require the crew to travel in full cars or vans, instead of 50% full as the current law indicates. Published in a Facebook group created for work in the southeastern region, the vacancy post immediately went viral on other social networks.
The reward of one euro per full box of lemons has been labelled by dozens of users of the network, as ‘slavery’ or at the very least ‘insulting’ and ‘degrading’.
The potential employer promises to pay for the transport worth €3 per person per working day. They limit themself to the term ‘recruitment’ of ‘crews’ and not of ‘casual’ employees. They do not specify whether it concerns legal or undeclared work. Clearly, they want to reduce average travel costs, while implicitly urging violation of Covid-19 regulations. In Murcia, cars and vans can only be 50% full if the occupants do not all belong to one household.
The average annual salary for fruit pickers in Murcia is €15,506 according to SalaryExpert.com. This makes the current job vacancy in Murcia considerably underpaid.
