Gangmaster makes £3.7 million libel claim against Guardian
By Leah McBride Mensching, Thursday 7 February 2008 at 23:08 :: Press Freedom & Laws :: #1227 :: rss
Andris Tiltnieks has filed a £3.7 million libel claim against the publishers of the Guardian newspaper.
Tiltnieks is the head of The Baltic Work Team, a company that employs Bulgarian workers to do manual labour. A Guardian article, published in August 2007, claimed the company illegally employed and exploited the workers, not paying them for 34 days and forcing them to live on scraps and by scavenging vegetables from fields where they worked, and housing them in dirty caravans. The story also stated that Tiltnieks had his gangmaster licence revoked for abuses of employment law, Press Gazette reported Thursday.
Tiltnieks claims the story, “Misery at bottom of supermarket supply chain,” was defamatory, and said it caused him financial losses.
The Guardian has stated it stands by the story, and would defend itself, had the case not already been suspended by the High Court last year, according to Press Gazette.
“This case has been stayed by the High Court and cannot go forward without the court's permission. We believe that we acted responsibly in preparing the story, and that the allegations made are in the public interest. Should the stay ever be lifted, we will be defending these proceedings robustly,” a Guardian spokesman stated, according to Press Gazette.
Tiltnieks said his workers were self-employed, lived in caravans bought in 2003 and were paid every 30 days, and that their wage deductions were due to self-employment regulations.
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