Reports of slavery and workplace exploitation on the rise in UK
Workers suffer widespread exploitation and abuse such as wage theft and slavery in 17 high risk sectors according to a report published on Tuesday by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA).
The report said that construction, recycling, nail bars and car washes were the most prevalent sectors for slavery but agriculture, food packing, fishing, shellfish gathering, warehouse and distribution, garment manufacturing, taxi driving , retail, domestic work, and social care industries were also highlighted.
Ian Waterfield, GLAA operations director, said: "It's not until now that we’ve had the ability to look, but it’s a case of the more you look, the more you find."
Reported cases of slavery have increased 35% year-on-year in the UK, and the country is now one of the hottest European destinations for worker trafficking and labour exploitation.
Newly arrived migrant workers often find themselves forced into unpaid labour as a form of ‘debt bondage’, being told that they have to pay off the cost travel and settlement in the UK.
Albanian, British and Vietnamese nationals were the most commonly referred for labour exploitation, while exploitation of Romanian nationals was most frequently reported.
The report has been welcomed by construction union Unite which characterised it as "hitting the nail on the head".
Gail Cartmail, assistant general secretary of Unite Union, said: "The report is entirely right to identify that not only does false self-employment deny workers basic employment rights but by barring them from receiving holiday and sick pay, these workers are automatically being exploited and further abuses are likely."
Self-employment was identified as the preferred contracting arrangement in the construction industry by the GLAA's report, despite many supposed self-employed workers having worked exclusively for one company for many years.
Frank Field, chair of the parliamentary select committee for work, said "This report sheds much needed light on some of the most rotten, grotesque and evil practices that afflict the bottom of our labour market. Slave labour is being used to prop up companies in large swaths of the economy. What is puzzling is how the government machinery and consumer backlash have yet fully to come to terms with this phenomenon."