Gangmasters
Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Written answers and statements, 16 May 2007
Malcolm Moss (North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(1) what estimate he has made of the number of gangmasters in (a) Cambridgeshire, (b) Norfolk and (c) Lincolnshire;
(2) what steps are being taken to ensure that migrant workers are not exploited by unregistered gangmasters;
(3) what steps are being taken to ensure that gangmasters are complying with the law on the minimum wage.
Barry Gardiner (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Brent North, Labour)
As of
The Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004 protects workers from exploitation and reduces illegal activity. The Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) was set up to curb the exploitation of workers in the agriculture, horticulture, shellfish gathering and associated processing and packaging industries. It is now illegal to supply workers to the agriculture, food processing and packaging, and shellfish gathering sectors without a GLA licence.
The GLA enforces the criminal offences in the Act on behalf of DEFRA by:
(i) Investigating criminal offences under the Act and identifying Labour Providers and Labour Users operating illegally
(ii) Engaging other government departments in joint investigative activity of mutual benefit to tackle illegal activity by Labour Providers
(iii) Providing a visible presence to deter, disrupt, or displace illegal activity.
Any person employed in the UK is entitled to be paid at least the appropriate minimum wage rate set out in minimum wage legislation. This includes all foreign nationals legally entitled to work in the United Kingdom. If a worker considers they might have been underpaid, they should contact the relevant minimum wage enforcement authority who will arrange for the matter to be investigated.
In addition, compliance with minimum wage legislation represents one of the licence conditions that a gangmaster must meet in order to obtain a gangmaster's licence. Gangmasters who fail to meet this requirement will have their licences revoked by the GLA.
Annotations
stinky will
Posted on 17 May 2007 6:23 pm (Report this annotation)
And having licences revoked will acheive what exactly,
of the 37 in Norfolk you really need to check which of them supplys labour to the biggest area,when you do you will find evidence of many illegal practises,but more importantly the people ie workers who unfortunatly fall foul of these parasites.I have witnessed instances of people getting deeper in debt everyday but not getting enough work or having to work long hours just to pay their way,leaving no spare cash to speak of with which to find work elseware.
Along with this are the living conditions that are common for this type of seasonal/work, which by the way has to be paid for and can be extremely expensive if not overly, and people do not generally arrive to do this kind of work with their wallets full of cash,and can find themselves being exploited or In my opinion robbed blind.
QUOTE "If a worker considers they might have been underpaid, they should contact the relevant minimum wage enforcement authority who will arrange for the matter to be investigated"UNQOUTE
The above quote is scary if a person was to find themselves in the kind of situations I have mentioned a peice of paper with that written on would be as useless as a kite in the doldrums.More likely is most of them not being aware that they could take this course of action anyway.Also a great many agency/casual workers that you will find working the areas mentioned wont even speak english,
The situation where pickers lost their lives was horrendous and very upsetting and it is hard for some to realise that anything could be as bad but while maybe not dying some people some english some from abroad are going to work the feilds and factorys of this country and are going to be treated as if they were worse than something unpleasant on the sole of someones nice shiny new shoe.
When I said some english some from abroad I should of said 10% or less english the rest from abroad.
Many things/activitys in the uk require that you are licenced by way of passing a test or fullfilling certain criteria, but as is commonly known a requirment to have a licence wether criminal penaltys
apply if you dont,does not mean at all that everybody will and many dont actually get a licence in real life and other people as per will suffer.