Gangmaster loses employment licence· Staff were forced to live in
cramped rooms
· Workers received less than minimum wage
Audrey Gillan The Guardian, Saturday March 22 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/22/ukcrime.immigration
A gangmaster who supplied workers for some of the country's biggest
chocolate, bread and salad manufacturers has lost his licence after
forcing migrants to live in rundown, cramped accommodation for which
they had to pay over the odds.
Robert Taylor, 38, director of the Burton upon Trent franchise of the
employment company 247 Staff, had his licence revoked by the
Gangmasters Licensing Authority after failing seven licensing
standards, which included three critical failures. He supplied workers
to Thorntons, the chocolate manufacturer, British Bakeries, and
Florette, the producer of pre-prepared salad bags.
Officers investigating his employment practices discovered that one
room measuring 2.8 metres by 3.8 metres was used to house three
adults, two children and a baby, who slept on one double mattress, a
single mattress and a child seat. Searching 19 properties used by
Taylor, GLA officers were provided with electricity or gas
certificates for just three.
They discovered that Taylor - whose company Morantus traded as 247
Staff - withheld money from his workers and forced them to sign
standing orders, threatening that if they did not do so they would not
receive any work. Workers were paid less than the national minimum
wage after deductions were made for accommodation, the costs of which
were £24 per worker more than the legal maximum.
GLA officers also discovered that if workers left their jobs before
their 12-month tenancy agreement was up they had to pay the rest of
the year's rent in full. Workers were not allowed to find alternative
accommodation. They also found that workers had not given their
consent for trans****t costs to be deducted from their wages and had no
idea how much would be taken from their pay packets for this.
Despite previous warnings from the GLA - which was set up following
the deaths of 23 Chinese cocklepickers in Morecambe Bay in 2004 -
workers were charged for the protective equipment that they needed to
do their job. Taylor appealed against the decision to remove his
licence, made last November, but this was dismissed.
The GLA tries to curb the exploitation of workers in the agriculture,
horticulture, shellfish gathering and processing and packaging
industries. Most of these workers come from countries such as Romania,
Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia and India.
Paul Whitehouse, chairman of the GLA, said: "Any group of workers who
are dependent on consumer demand for a weekly job should at least
expect to receive the minimum wage and the protection of UK law. The
GLA is cracking down on illegal work practices to protect workers from
the abuse of rogue gangmasters. Yet again, we see that the food on our
plates on dinner tables across the UK could be there at the expense of
exploited workers."
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