Claims over 'card scheme' at firm

Some workers at a fruit picking company operating in Herefordshire have claimed it has a football-style yellow card disciplinary scheme.

S&A Produce employs about 4,000 people from Eastern Europe at the height of summer at its polytunnel farms in Brierley and Marden, Herefordshire.

One Polish worker, Marcin Brzystowicz, 19, told the BBC: "If you gain three yellow cards you're fired."

But S&A Produce said it did not operate a card disciplinary scheme.

'No equal fields'

It said: "Our disciplinary and grievance procedures are well documented, and have been agreed by the Transport and General Workers' Union."

The Polish worker told BBC Hereford and Worcester: "For example, if the group collects eight kilos per person per hour then they're okay - but if it's three or four or even seven you'll get a yellow card.

"But there are no equal fields- one field will have more mud than another."

Answering suggestions there are not enough strawberries to pick during the summer, the company added: "This season we have employed some 3,900 workers, picked 11,000 tonnes of soft fruit, using some 22 million punnets, as well as five million cobs of sweet corn.

"Over the years we have employed more than 15,000 people, and many of those have returned year on year to work for us."