The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 4 letter word CHAIN GANG
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
C
H
A
I
N
G
A
N
G
More clues leading to the result CHAIN GANG
- Workers in union cruelly treated
- Changing a reformed group of prisoners
- Caught hanging out with a group of convicts at work
- Labour party linked up to work together
- Prisoners closely linked at work
- Workers bound to be changing a dynamic
- Tea in Georgia extremely nourishing for detainees
- Well-connected criminals in this working group!
- Offending Labour Party?
- Joined Labour party
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Oppressed group of workers" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case oppressed group of workers = chain gang.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.