African workers ‘unpaid and mistreated’

Workers who have come from abroad to work at Farhat’sa Pitsa in Saltangará are accusing their employer of mistreatment.

They say they were subjected to 14-hour work days every day for months with no pay, were constantly under surveillance and that threats from the employer became a daily occurrence.

Saber Haddad and Yassine Bouzekri from Tunisia came to the Faroes four months ago to work at the pizzeria. They say they have not been paid for any of their work.

They claim that their employer told them they would be paid once they had received sufficient training, despite both of them previously having worked in catering for many years.

Hicham Sahli travelled from Morocco to the Faroes nine months ago to work for the same pizzeria. He says he has only been paid for a fraction of the work he has done.

“After nine months of constant work, I am exhausted. I’ve had no time off. At one point, I was so worn out that I was considering committing suicide,” explains Sahli.

Threats

The men say that on several occasions when they expressed their concerns to their employer, Farhat Bourbia, they were subjected to threats.

“He told us that if we did not stop complaining, he would tell his bookkeeper [Bill Justinussen, who was an MP for 20 years up until the last election], who would make sure we would be put into into handcuffs and thrown out of the country,” explains Bouzekri.

“We asked why because we are not criminals.”

Haddad mentions an incident where his request for payment was met with violent behaviour from his employer.

“He hit me with a pizza knife and then he slapped me in the face. I have a friend who witnessed this incident.”

Deprived of food and freedom

Haddad, Bouzekri and Sahli are three of a total of five workers from abroad who have experienced these working conditions at Farhat’sa Pitsa in recent months.

“I was never allowed to go outside when I was at work. If I was allowed outside for a coffee break, I was always accompanied by one of the employer’s family members,” says Sahli.

The workers say that everything was regulated, even their food.

“I was starving at work. There were times when I had to eat from the rubbish bin,” says Haddad.

The bookkeeper’s explanation

Former MP Bill Justinussen is the co-founder of the company that brought the workers to the Faroes, and he is also the pizzeria’s bookkeeper.

He was not available for an interview for yesterday’s Dagur & Vika news programme as he is currently abroad.

However, in a short statement, he says that he has very limited knowledge of this situation as he does not speak Arabic or French.

After consulting with pizzeria owner Farhat Bourbia, Justinussen has learned that the workers had been informed from the start that they would not be paid for the first three-four months. But as soon as the money became available, they would receive their payment.

One reason for the lack of payment, he adds, is that the workers had been stranded in Morocco for some time prior to coming to the Faroes due to Covid restrictions. This resulted in big hotel expenses for pizzeria owner Farhat Bourbia, leaving him unable to pay salaries once the men arrived in the Faroes.

The workers deny this claim, saying that they stayed in private accommodation while stranded in Morocco.

Justinussen acknowledges that mistakes were made and he agreed to withhold payment because his employer had told him to do so.

The owner’s explanation

Farhat Bourbia told KvF that he would be prepared to appear in an interview after he had spoken to Justinussen. We have not managed to get hold of him since.

When we spoke to Bourbia, he provided a different explanation to Justinussen’s.

He said that the workers in question have, for the most part, been paid. Those who have not been paid either lacked the relevant paperwork or “did not do any work in the past two months”.

He added that the company handling payments went into liquidation shortly after he took over as the owner of the pizzeria.

Police say they are “currently investigating ‘a case of this nature’” but have no further comments at this point.

Inspection of workplaces

The Immigration Office is responsible for approving work and residence permits and ensuring that employment contracts are set up correctly.

“This case serves as a reminder that we need to improve our inspection procedures,” says Sólva G. Dam of the Immigration Office.

“We have for some time been planning to carry out inspection visits in workplaces that hire staff from abroad. This case will speed up this process, and we aim to start our spot checks in the coming months.”

Legal implications

Lawyer Jógvan Páll Lassen visited the TV studio. His take on the situation is, in short: it’s not looking great for the employer.

“More than anything, this case highlights the need for proper information about the legal rights of workers from abroad. Without this information, foreign workers can end up as easy prey.”

For others in similar situations, especially those who are not members of a trade union, a good place to seek guidance is the Faroe Islands Legal Aid, which offers legal counselling free of charge.

(This is a short summary of a lengthy investigative TV news feature. Unfortunatly, with the limited resources we have for News in English, we are unable to provide a complete text version in English. The full feature is available (in Faroese) here.)

More Faroese News in English.