Turning the Tide

How best to protect workers employed by gangmasters, five years after Morecambe Bay

On 5 February 2004, 23 Chinese cockle pickers drowned in rising tides in Morecambe Bay because of the negligence of their gangmaster. Five years on from the Morecambe Bay tragedy Oxfam has published a paper revealing that UK workers employed by ‘gangmasters’ still face unacceptable levels of exploitation and abuse.

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On film: vulnerable workers

Summary

This paper evaluates the current protection afforded to workers in the industries regulated by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA). It highlights that a significant number of unlicensed gangmasters continue to exist, and exploitation of workers is still reported. The GLA’s efforts to reduce exploitation are fundamentally thwarted by workers’ fear of blowing the whistle, particularly during a recession.

The paper also reveals that those employed by gangmasters to work in the construction, hospitality and social care sectors are particularly vulnerable because these sectors are outside the remit of the GLA and poorly enforced. These vulnerable workers routinely face underpayment of wages, debt bondage, excessive hours, spurious deductions, and dangerous and unsafe working conditions.

Both Oxfam’s three-year Migrant Workers’ Project (PDF) in England and its continuing work with the Roma community in Scotland (PDF), showed Oxfam that gangmaster exploitation was rising in a range of sectors – not just agriculture and food processing.

In 2008, Oxfam commissioned the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE) at Hull University to conduct an independent evaluation of the protection available to workers employed through gangmasters or labour providers.

In this paper Oxfam recommends that:

• The ineffective Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate should be folded into the GLA so that the new larger body covers all gangmasters and agencies.
• Failing this, the remit of the GLA should be extended to construction, care and hospitality with immediate effect.
• The GLA should no longer have a duty to enforce immigration policy or share information with the UK Border Agency.
• The resources available to the GLA should be increased so it can scale up its operation and employ more field inspectors.

Oxfam GB Briefing Paper

Authors: Krisnah Poinasamy and Antonia Bance

Publication date: 29 July 2009