POLICE have launched an investigation into allegations that migrants were paid 30p an hour by an employment agency to work as human billboards for a Domino’s Pizza franchise.

Men and women were being hired as “sandwichmen” in Daventry, Northamptonshire, to advertise the local pizza shop’s latest deals.

The alarm was raised by Mayor Wendy Randall, who called the police on June 3 after receiving a series of concerned calls from her constituents about the working conditions of the Domino’s human billboards.

“I left Daventry last Tuesday and I saw this girl on the roundabout with this board,” Ms Randall told the Star.

“She had this huge Domino’s board that was almost the size of her, trying to hold it in the wind, it looked like she was half frozen to death.”

Ms Randall called the police the following day concerned that the workers were being exploited after a similar case in nearby Corby last year.

She said that police went round with an interpreter as the workers were Romanian and spoke little English.

“They had their passports taken off them. He didn’t know his address in Birmingham,” said the Daventry mayor.

“He didn’t know what town he was in and they were being paid 30p an hour.”

A spokesman for Northamptonshire Police confirmed that it had “looked into the issue and had been reassured that this marketing activity has now been stopped.”

But he said that the investigation into the case was ongoing and that West Midlands Police had been called in to co-operate.

Domino’s Pizza head of communications Nina Arnott told the Star that it was processing an internal investigation.

She said that, as far as she and the Daventry franchisee knew, all workers were paid at or above the minimum wage.
“We are a responsible employer.

“It would be ethically and legally wrong if there was someone who believed they were working on behalf of Domino’s whether directly or indirectly (paying 30p an hour) and we would come down on that like a ton of bricks, because there is just no place for that.”

The Star tried to contact the agency alleged to have hired the workers, but none of its phone numbers appeared to work.