The Gangmasters Licensing Authority


The Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) regulates employers who supply labour to the fresh produce supply chain and horticulture industry. Employment agencies, labour providers and gangmasters who provide workers to the agriculture, horticulture and shellfish gathering sectors, as well as any associated processing and packaging, must have a GLA licence.


The Immigration Act 2016, which received Royal Assent in May 2016,contains provisions to rename the GLA the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) and expand its remit across all industries and sectors. As well as new offences, the Act will create additional roles within the GLA – labour market enforcement officers – who will specifically address the most severe forms of labour abuse.


The GLA has set out the changes in the Act that will directly affect it, including:


• A broader remit and stronger powers to tackle labour exploitation across the economy, introducing the capacity to search and seize evidence and investigate modern slavery where it relates to labour abuse and other offences;


• Creating a new labour market undertaking and enforcement order regime, backed up by a criminal offence and custodial sentence – to allow the GLA to tackle repeat labour market offenders and rogue businesses;


• Creating a new role of Director of Labour Market Enforcement to set the strategic priorities for labour market enforcement bodies (the Employment Agencies Standard Inspectorate, HMRC’s National Minimum Wage team and the GLAA) in an annual labour market enforcement strategy;


• Creating an information hub to support the work of the Director; and


• Allowing data sharing between the Director, the information hub, labour market enforcement bodies and other bodies with intelligence that inform the preparation of the labour market enforcement strategy.


However, the TUC and unions are concerned that government proposals to make licensing more flexible will lead to fewer workplace inspections, leaving workers more vulnerable to exploitation. The TUC says that a weaker “more flexible” vetting process puts workers at risk of victimisation, not being paid the national minimum wage or holiday pay, and being housed in squalid conditions, and increases the chances of bad employers undercutting good ones. They are also concerned about how the government will fund the expanded remit of the new GLAA. And construction union UCATT said that while it had long called for the extension of the Gangmasters Licensing Act to cover the construction industry, this was on the basis of the existing licensing system, which prevents exploitative agencies supplying labour in the first place and means that companies found to be mistreating workers can be swiftly stripped of their licence.


“A more flexible licence system is unlikely to create a crackdown on the unfair treatment of workers that the construction industry is crying out for,” the union said. “Once again this Tory Government looks to favour the bosses over protecting the workers, and is prepared to let the exploitation of the most vulnerable workers continue in order for employment agency bosses to make more money.”


GLA Chair Margaret Beels acknowledged these concerns and said that discussions will continue in an effort to ensure available resources match the inevitable increase in demand.