Europe Cannot Defend Its Social Model While Abandoning Farmworkers

For decades, Europe has prided itself on a social model that combines economic development with strong protections for workers. Yet that commitment is now being put to the test. Just look at the next farm budget, where EU governments are threatening to abandon the people who work to feed Europe – at least 10 million workers, according to the European farmworkers’ union EFFAT.

Governments have just voted to scrap workers’ rights protections from the next iteration of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), setting up a clash with the European Parliament. The so-called “social conditionality” mechanism links agricultural subsidies to compliance with labour standards, allowing payments to be reduced when farms violate workers’ rights. It is a recent mechanism that only came into force in 2025, yet member states are already seeking to dismantle it, without even waiting for an initial evaluation of its impact.

This raises a fundamental question: is the EU still committed to its social model? And does its commitment to workers’ rights extend to how the EU budget is spent?

Citizens are clear that they expect the EU’s public spending to uphold workers’ rights, not reward those who violate them. A 2025 survey for the European consumer organisation BEUC found that eight in ten consumers consider fair pay and working conditions for farmworkers important objectives of European agricultural subsidies. Yet member states have decided that, in the name of “simplifying” administration, billions in agricultural subsidies can flow to businesses that disregard even basic labour standards.

A Food System Built on Cheap Labour

The farmworkers who feed Europe are among the most exploited workers on the continent. Europe’s food system is built on keeping farm labour cheap. As a recent IPES-Food report documents, many face low pay, unsafe conditions, abuse, and insecure employment. Across the EU, an estimated 500 agricultural workers die in workplace accidents every year.

European agriculture operates under intense pressure to minimise production costs, as powerful buyers and concentrated supply chains squeeze farmers. These pressures are routinely passed down to those with the least bargaining power: agricultural workers. Tackling exploitation therefore means addressing the economic incentives that underpin European farming.

Migrant workers, who make up a quarter of the agricultural workforce across the EU, are especially at risk of exploitation and even modern slavery. In the Capitanata area of Puglia, in southern Italy, 73 per cent of the migrant farmworkers surveyed who received a pay slip were paid for fewer than one-third of the days they actually worked. In Murcia, Spain, a Nicaraguan farmworker died after an 11-hour shift in 44°C heat without access to water. Immigration policies that tie workers’ right to remain to a particular employer, alongside recruitment debts and precarious legal status, can leave migrant workers unable to challenge abuse without risking their livelihoods or their residence.

Governments are often enablers of exploitation, with gaps in labour protections and enforcement leaving some farmworkers without safeguards other workers take for granted. In Italy, the agricultural wage floor is lower than for other sectors, and research has found widespread underpayment of even these minimum rates. In the Netherlands, farms with 25 workers or fewer can skip the independent review of their workplace risk assessment. Labour inspections are woefully inadequate. A German parliamentary question revealed that, at current inspection rates, farms in Lower Saxony could expect a minimum-wage inspection only once every 350 years. Extraordinary inspections in Italy, meanwhile, uncovered irregularities in 58 per cent of cases.

Even where legal protections exist, precarious employment can make them difficult to access. Across the EU, around one in three agricultural workers has no written employment contract, according to EFFAT. This leaves them vulnerable to wage theft, unsafe conditions, and harassment, with limited access to social security and little recourse when their rights are violated.

When Public Money Rewards Exploitation

Yet EU agricultural subsidies continue to flow to businesses implicated in serious labour abuses. A 2025 investigation by DeSmog found that 30 farm owners received at least €14 million in subsidies despite convictions or investigations for labour exploitation. In Italy, an employer convicted of exploiting migrant workers, paying them just €4.50 an hour, received nearly €200,000 in EU farm subsidies the following year.

EU taxpayers should expect billions in agricultural subsidies to support food security and decent jobs, not to reward businesses that exploit the people doing the work. Farmers who pay decent wages and provide safe working conditions should not be undercut by competitors who flout labour standards to cut costs. Without effective safeguards, EU subsidies risk entrenching this unfair competition, effectively rewarding employers who exploit their workers.

Social conditionality was meant to uphold these principles. But weak enforcement has so far limited its impact. That is a reason to strengthen it, not to scrap it. Abandoning it would send a clear message: that Europe’s commitment to workers’ rights is little more than an empty promise.

The Common Agricultural Policy does more than assist farmers financially. It is a major instrument that shapes European agriculture. Without social conditionality, millions in subsidies risk reinforcing business models that depend on poor working conditions, rather than supporting those that provide decent jobs.

The Council’s position must not be the final word. As negotiations over Europe’s next farm budget continue, the European Parliament must insist that social conditionality is preserved and strengthened, with meaningful penalties, effective inspections, and no loopholes that leave workers unprotected. The EU cannot claim to champion workers’ rights while stripping them out of one of its largest spending programmes. Europe’s next farm budget must work for workers, too.