GFTU Emplaw Emplaw Emplaw

Government Response to Consultation on tackling exploitation in the labour market

Consultation on tackling exploitation in the labour market

In parallel with the Immigration Bill, the government launched a consultation (open until 7th December 2015) seeking views on a range of proposals to improve the effectiveness of the enforcement of employment rights to protect workers from exploitation. These include:

  • Measures to support the statutory Director of Labour Market Enforcement (the role is set out in the Immigration Bill).
  • Creating a new offence of an aggravated breach of labour market legislation
  • Increasing intelligence and data sharing between the existing enforcement bodies
  • Widening the remit, increasing the powers and changing the name of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority to enable it to deal with serious exploitation.

The consultation observed that there has been a shift in the nature of non-compliance within the labour market, with a move towards more organised criminal activity rather than individual abuses of employment legislation.  

The Outcome of the Consultation

The outcome of the consultation was published in January 2016 and found that there was broad support for the proposed measures and the government intends to implement the following:

  • The Director will produce an annual labour market enforcement strategy and set priorities for the enforcement bodies across the whole of the labour market – including direct employment and labour providers. As the Immigration Bill continues its journey through Parliament amendments will be made to ensure the role is clearly defined in legislation, including the necessary remit and powers for the Director to be effective.
  • Introducing a new type of enforcement order supported by a criminal offence  The labour market enforcement bodies* will have the power to require a business, where there is reasonable belief that a labour market offence (e.g. underpayment of NMW or a Modern Slavery Offence), has been committed, to enter into an undertaking to take steps to prevent further offending. Breach of the order would be a criminal offence which would attract a maximum custodial penalty of two years for non-compliance. The proposal in the consultation to create a new offence of aggravated labour law is not being pursued.
  • A proposal to create communication gateways between the Director, the three labour market enforcement bodies, other bodies and the intelligence hub. The hub will coordinate data which will be used to develop the annual strategy plan for labour market enforcement.
  • Transforming the GLA into the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority. Its mission will be to prevent, detect and investigate worker exploitation across all labour sectors and it will be given police-style enforcement powers in England and Wales.

*The three labour market enforcement bodies are  the National Minimum Wage team under HMRC, the Employment Agency Standards inspectorate (EAS) who regulate employment agencies and businesses and the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) which licenses labour providers in the fresh produce supply chain.

For more information about the Immigration Bill please see the Emplaw Online short guide (available to subscribers only)