“Undercover as a farm worker in Germany: ‘My hands are numb. No one knows when the shift will end”

… I replied to an ad and from the follow-up phone calls, I learned that I would be working seven days a week, that they guaranteed work for at least 10 hours a day and that I would be paid €6.20 (£5.27) an hour. I would have to pay the agency a fee of €200 and a one-off sum of €105 for my bed…

… Even going to the toilet feels embarrassing because it is made clear that we shouldn’t do it very often…

We chop and peel onions, peppers, tomatoes, root vegetables, pumpkins, white cabbage and cucumbers. My wrists start to hurt and the piles of cabbage seem to never end…

… you work a certain number of hours, but a lower number is recorded. As a result, you meet the legal requirements for the number of hours and the minimum hourly wage.

The contract I sign on about day three probably corresponds to the German labour code. But I receive two work report sheets…

One of the worst things about this job is that no one can tell you when the shift will end…