"Migrant fruit picker who 'struggled to buy food after being underpaid by British farm' sues employers,"

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Sapana Pangeni, 31, from Nepal, says she was owed nearly £1,500 from two months working at a farm in Berkshire. She came to the UK under the government’s visa scheme for the agriculture sector and is the first person on a seasonal worker visa to take legal action against a farm.

Ms Pangeni worked at EU Plants Ltd...

She claims she worked six days a week for up to eight and a half hours each day. Before the tribunal proceedings started she said that she and some of her colleagues ran out of money within a few weeks of arriving in the UK. She said A friend gave her £60 for groceries, which she then shared with other Nepali workers at the farm who were also too broke to buy food...

Following her complaint, the recruiter transferred Ms Pangeni to another farm, but she said she was not compensated for the money she was owed.

Besides not being paid all her wages, she says she was not given a contract, had to provide her own personal protective equipment, and faced indirect discrimination, according to her legal filings.

Her lawyers are arguing that she suffered indirect discrimination as a result of the fact that she was on a six-month visa and so found it harder to uphold her rights compared to people with a more secure immigration status, either through a union or the legal system...

EU Plants Ltd “strongly deny” the claim bought by Ms Pangeni and intend to strongly defend the claim...