Moët & Chandon or Mercier have their own homes in Épernay, but most of the workers in these vines sleep on the street, disappoint themselves with wages and often perform unpaid work days.

Trade unions claim that conditions in the champagne sector worsen and offer poor conditions and low wages “over and over” to get cheap labour. José Blanco, secretary-general of the CGT trade union, pointed out that this is a system of “Russian dolls”, made up of subcontracted companies. This has made it difficult to attribute responsibility for the exploitation of workers to certain wineries.

As several workers have explained to The Guardian, most of the workers spend the night in the street and live in fear of being fired the next day, “every night we wonder if they are going to fire us the next morning or if we are going to continue working in the vineyards.”

There is no guarantee of accommodation or refuge to sleep the workers of the vineyard, many spend the night in front of the cinema of Epernay. One of its workers has stated that the City Hall should “do nothing” and assume responsibility for the situation: “The City Hall only displaces the workers because now we have many tourists, but they would have to find a house. It's terrible."

The lack of food makes the situation even more serious. According to the testimonies collected by The Guardian, the workers who work in the vines receive a single snack every day, which has led them to make several burglaries. According to workers, they have had to steal food to survive in the countryside of the area.

As several workers have explained, many of them do not receive the salaries promised to them, some of them have reported that they have not received any salary or salary. The sellers were promised EUR 80 per day, but they criticised the fact that this is not in reality.

The legal minimum wage in France is EUR 9.23 per hour after deductions, which means that workers would have to pay between EUR 100 and EUR 110 per day, much more than the EUR 80 promised. The worker, who is a Malian national, named Kanouté, has explained that he has worked throughout the week and that he receives only EUR 200 of salary.

Cheap labour allows the French champagne industry to continue to generate large profits. In 2023, 300 million bottles of champagne were exported, resulting in a total income of EUR 6 billion. Every kilo of vine grapes costs between EUR 10 and EUR 12, and the cheapest bottle of champagne exceeds EUR 25. However, these benefits are not reflected in the working conditions of the vines’ employees, and the investigation has shown that the holding remains a majority.