Labour abuses and sweatshop conditions reported in factories in Leicester are occurring “at scale” across the UK’s garment, manufacturing and farming industries, campaigners warn. Last week a new report estimated that there were up to 100,000 people living in conditions of modern slavery in the UK, with warnings that the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to exacerbate labour exploitation.
Reports of similar exploitative conditions and labour abuses alleged to be occurring in Leicester have also been linked to garment factories in Birmingham, Manchester and London, among other places. Workers in sectors such as furniture, construction, contract cleaning, recycling and domestic work are also being paid less than the minimum wage and experience wage theft, unsafe working conditions, verbal and physical abuse, and unpaid overtime.
A 2018 report by Homeworkers Worldwide UK found labour abuses similar to those uncovered in Leicester in garment factories across Greater Manchester. Machinists reported being paid £4 an hour and said their pay slips were doctored to make it look like they had worked fewer hours than they had actually put in. One accused the owner of the factory where she worked of demanding money for supporting her application for a UK passport.
“Exactly the same labour abuses that the government and brands are professing shock and horror over in Leicester are happening at scale across the country,” said Emily Kenway, a senior adviser at Focus on Labour Exploitation (Flex). “It’s not just garments. In the construction sector in London we found a huge amount of abuse, underpayment of wages, verbal and physical intimidation. We know migrant cleaners are having their rights abused. The list goes on. It is not acceptable that action is only taken when the most extreme cases come to light. Basic labour laws are simply not being upheld across the country and that is corrosive and wrong.”
“The evidence we found from our research was that the same bad working conditions and issues with underpayment of wages were occurring outside of Leicester across the Greater Manchester area,” said Lucy Brill, a researcher at Homeworkers Worldwide who conducted the interviews with workers in 2018. “There is nobody holding these businesses to account.”
“Again and again we see the same coercive practices impacting on the most vulnerable workers who have no way of getting their voices heard and who are forced to accept whatever conditions are pushed on them by their employers, who have little to fear from the authorities,” said Thulsi Narayanasamy, a labour rights researcher at the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre.
Labour rights activists have pointed to the decline in funding for labour inspectors and a lack of safe reporting mechanism for workers experiencing abuse.
The number of health and safety inspectors employed by the Health and Safety Executive has dropped by a third from 1,495 in 2009 to 978 in 2017, with funding slashed from £239m to £139m over the same period.
“If employers know that they won’t be inspected, face penalties and lose business then you’re creating conditions for abuse,” said Dominique Muller, senior campaigner at Label Behind the Label.
“On current funding levels, the likelihood of a business receiving a minimum wage inspection by HMRC is once every 500 years and labour inspectors weren’t even named as essential workers on government lists when the pandemic hit,” said Emily Kenway. “The government cannot continue to talk about its fight against modern slavery but allow labour abuses to continue in our industries unchecked until they escalate out of control.”
The UK’s Modern Slavery Helpline has already seen an increase in the number of potential instances of labour abuse in the agricultural sector this year with 13 modern slavery cases, 38 potential victims and 18 labour abuse cases.
“Many workers are managed and controlled by third party labour providers some of whom exploit them, taking whatever they earn or making large deductions from pay for accommodation and transport,” said Justine Currell, chief executive at Unseen UK, the charity running the helpline. “Workers report that they are often working in remote areas, getting little or no pay, and sometimes living in poor conditions in dilapidated caravans and outhouses. Such abuse and exploitation is simply not acceptable.”
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