Will gangmaster laws aid workers?

By Tom Heap
BBC News Rural Affairs Correspondent

The new laws will protect workers such as cockle pickers

New laws outlawing unlicensed gangmasters and to help save the lives of exploited workers have now come into effect.

Their intention is to prevent further tragedies such as the incident in 2004 which saw at least 21 illegal Chinese cocklers drown in Morecambe Bay.

Gangmasters - the term used for labour-providing businesses - hate the name they have been given and I can see their point.

It seems so Dickensian, accompanied by an unmistakable whiff of villainy.

They would prefer "temping agencies". But they are stuck with it. Even the new body set up to regulate them doesn't go by some business-friendly jargon.

It is the Gangmasters Licensing Authority.

So what do gangmasters do? They provide workers to businesses, like another supplier might provide a raw material.

Farms and food businesses do not need the same number of staff all the time so these labour providers are very useful, indeed an essential part of our economy.

But the characteristics of the workers - frequently migratory, ignorant of the law, poor grasp of English, sometimes illegal - and the murkiness surrounding who actually employs them, means exploitation is rife.

Poor conditions

Many are paid below the minimum wage, kept in overcrowded homes, work in dangerous conditions and separated from their passports.

So, following the tragic and criminally negligent death of at least 21 Chinese cockle pickers - the bodies of two others were never found - it was decided gangmasters needed cleaning up, and the best way to do that is inspection and licensing.

Operating without a licence could land the gangmaster with an unlimited fine or up to 10 years in prison.

A team of inspectors from the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) will tour the country making on-the-spot checks to make sure pay is adequate, health and safety rules are followed and housing is not overcrowded.

GANGMASTER STATISTICS There are between 1,000 and 4,000 gangmasters in the UK Around 900 have currently applied for a licence Some 500,000 people work for gangs in farming, forestry, fishing and fresh food processing Gangmasters operating without a licence could now get an unlimited fine or up to 10 years in jail

They also need to make sure the taxman is getting his cut too. Hard figures are impossible to compile, but last year it was thought that the black labour market was costing the treasury £1bn to £4bn in lost revenue.

Will it work? It's good as far as it goes but is severely hampered by the lack of scope and resources.

There are only 30 inspectors to cover the whole country.

They can call on customs, police and safety inspectors, but these people have busy jobs already and will need instruction to make it a priority.

Legitimate labour providers do not oppose the new body but are worried that a weakly enforced regime will simply allow the cowboy operators to undercut the honest ones.

Limited jurisdiction

Also, the GLA's rules only apply to those in farming, forestry, fishing and fresh food packing, leaving whole swathes of the economy out.

Construction, warehousing, hotels, catering - all these use labour providers, but anyone who supplies their workers will remain untouched by the new law.

The most worrying criticism is that the GLA provides a mirage of action, enough to satisfy politicians and the media that something was done after the cockle pickers drowned.

Critics say we don't need a new law, just the will and means to enforce the existing ones effectively, be they health and safety, tax or employment.

In his speech to the TUC conference Tony Blair said: "The Gangmasters Licensing Act must not simply be in effect, but must be enforced and vigorously".

"Amen to that," say thousands of workers, and the good guys amongst their employers.