The Gangmasters Licensing Authority


The Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA), an independent non-departmental government body, currently regulates the use of workers in the following sectors, by operating a licensing and inspection system, designed to prevent exploitation:


• agriculture; 


• horticulture;


• shellfish gathering; and


• any associated processing and packaging. 


Following years of union campaigning for its remit to be extended, the government is to transform the enforcement body in the Immigration Act 2016 (see box), renaming it the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, and giving it new enforcement powers, to be operated by new labour abuse prevention officers, with a mandate to regulate all sectors of the economy. However, trade unions remain concerned by threats to dilute the GLA’s inspection powers, exacerbated by government cuts to frontline inspectors (down by 25% since 2010-11) and by changes to its board structure, undermining the GLA’s representativeness. Since 2014, nobody with experience of representing workers has sat on the board.


There is information about the powers and activities of the GLA on their webpage: www.gla.gov.uk.