As a result of the operation, they discovered that 56.9 per cent of workers employed by the 109 farms surveyed were not hired legally, officials said on Thursday.
The inspections were carried out on Wednesday in the provinces of Mantua, Modena, Latina, Caserta and Foggia.
Overall, out of 109 farms inspected, 62 presented irregularities (56.9 per cent), while out of the 505 employees checked, 236 were off-the-books (46.7 per cent), including three minors and 136 non-EU citizens.
In particular, 23 off-the-book workers did not have a residence permit, officials said.
Earlier this month, police arrested the owner of an agricultural company that employed Satnam Singh, an off-the-books 31-year-old farm labourer who bled out after being dumped outside his hut with an arm severed by wrapping machinery placed beside him on a fruit picking box in Latina, south of Rome.
The death of Singh, one of the thousands of Indian immigrants who work the fields around Latina for slave wages and in dire conditions, has caused outrage across Italy.
ANSA
