The field workers, all Africans, were crammed into a building described as ‘repugnant’ by the inspector, with a mud floor, no ceiling and little hot water. They said they were given little or inedible food and never paid. At least they got out alive: nearby, four workers died that harvest from sunstroke and heart attacks.
Egypt? South Africa? No: this was Champagne in September 2023. The authorities shut down the squalid camp. But the same month saw at least three similar cases there. The abuses might sound extreme but they highlight labour rights in the wine industry, an issue fast moving up the agenda. Three people have subsequently been jailed for these offences.
The struggle to find pickers
Champagne is particularly heavily reliant on migrant workers, needing around 120,000 grape pickers during harvest. Champagne houses generally sub-contract to agencies, who can sub-contract to others – a process open to modern slavery and human trafficking. But there have been similar cases too in Bordeaux and in Italy’s Piemonte. And indeed across the world, as people migrate to cities from agricultural regions, and as youngsters choose easier options over back-breaking vineyard work, the wine industry is becoming more reliant on migrant labour.
The Wine Society highlighted the issue earlier this year in a ground-breaking roundtable discussion, Breaking the Taboo, which brought together representatives from the wine trade and workers’ rights NGOs. They highlighted a situation where part of the problem is ignorance and lack of transparency but where the economic crunch is putting pressure on labour standards too.
Fairness increasingly under the spotlight
In fact, labour rights are just the most prominent of the issues around what’s known as ‘social sustainability’ – the challenge of running businesses in ways that are fair to employees and local communities, and which promote an economy that can prosper in the long term. It's an area I examine in my new book co-authored with Jane Masters MW, Rooted in Change: The Stories Behind Sustainable Wine.
What can producers do to sustain rural economies?
As well as labour conditions, social sustainability can include everything from the agrochemicals that producers spray, drifting into neighbour’s houses or schools, through to how alcohol gets marketed responsibly to consumers. There are tough questions too about what happens to rural economies when a wine industry declines. In Portugal’s Douro Valley, for instance, Port house Symington is trying to create new career paths in wine tourism, as older growers retire and young people leave.
how can I tell my bottle wasn’t made by exploited workers?
The question wine drinkers may ask themselves is: how can I tell my bottle wasn’t made by exploited workers? It’s tricky, because there is no labelling system for sustainability or labour rights in the way that there is, for instance, for organic wines.
For wines produced in the developing world there is Fairtrade certification, where a premium of a few pence per bottle goes into a fund managed by workers at accredited wineries. I saw this in action in South Africa earlier this year, and it does make a difference. At Journey’s End, for example, workers have chosen to use the funds to pay for gas stoves and washing machines.
Mainly, however, you just have to buy from a responsible wine merchant. Pressure from major European importers has had an effect in South Africa. I visited Wine Society suppliers there, including Radford Dale and Delheim, with exemplary records. And in New Zealand, for example, strict government controls and better accommodation have helped: James McDonald of Hunter’s told the Breaking the Taboo roundtable that 90 per cent of their migrant workers come back every year. There is a long way to go on worker rights and social sustainability in global wine – but The Wine Society’s programme has made a really important start.
>> Read more about human rights in wine
>> What is The Wine Society doing to ensure fair treatment in our supply chain?
Andrew Neather has co-written Rooted in Change: The Stories Behind Sustainable Wine with Jane Masters MW, published October 2025 by the Académie du Vin Library. Members receive a 15% discount with the code TWSBOOKS15.
