Construction must change to end modern slavery

 forwarded to NV by Joe Bailey

THE construction union Unite is calling for fundamental changes in the way that the construction industry is organised and for the introduction of licensing of gangmasters.  The union call came in response to an investigation conducted jointly by Construction News and BBC Three, who used undercover journalists from the UK and Romania to reveal the extent of modern day slavery in construction.

Unite said it believes the way that the industry operates means that there is a real potential for exploitative practices occurring on even the largest projects.  The union repeated its all for the gangmasters licencing regime to be extended to construction. The licensing requirement currently only covers agriculture, food processing and shellfish collection.

Companies which operate in the sectors where licensing exists are also required to ensure that they are only working with licensed gangmasters.

Unite national officer for construction Jerry Swain said: “The revelations about the extent of modern day slavery and how it operates in construction must be a wake-up call to the industry and government. This is not simply a problem on smaller sites, even the largest sites have the potential for modern day slavery.  Major contractors simply don’t know who is supplying labour on their sites, how they have been recruited and if they are being coerced.”

He added: “Until the unnecessarily long labour supply chains are tackled the potential of modern day slavery will exist in every area of our industry. One major way to help tackle the problem is to extend gangmasters licencing to construction and to force the rogue employers out of the industry. The industry needs to be honest, if a labour supply company needs to get a third party to supply the labour, they are not really a labour supply company.”
Unite news release. Construction News. BBC Three.

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