Gangmaster licensing extension will protect vulnerable workers - IOSH

The Government has announced that the Gangmasters Licensing Authority is to be reformed. It will be renamed the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority and will have stronger powers to deal with exploitation across the economy.

The announcement comes after a consultation, called Tackling exploitation in the labour market, of which IOSH was among 93 respondents.

In its response, IOSH repeated its calls for extending gangmaster licensing. The Institution has been calling for more action to protect the lives of vulnerable workers in at-risk sectors since 23 Chinese cockle pickers tragically drowned in Morecambe Bay in February 2004.
 
Richard Jones, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at IOSH, said: “We’ve repeatedly called for the extension of gangmaster licensing to cover additional sectors such as construction, catering and hospitality.

“So we are delighted that the Government has heeded these calls and that they intend to tackle rogues wherever they’re operating.”

The Government said that many respondents were in favour of the change. Its document said the reformed authority will be asked to “prevent, detect and investigate worker exploitation across all labour sectors”. The authority will be assisted in this task with police-style enforcement powers.

As a result of the consultation, the Government made other commitments. They were to:

• Create the role of Director of Labour Market Enforcement to set the strategic priorities for labour market enforcement bodies.

• Allow data sharing between the Director, the Intelligence Hub, labour market enforcement bodies and other bodies with intelligence.

• Create a new labour market undertaking and enforcement order regime to allow repeat labour market offenders and rogue businesses to be dealt with.