Kent was the latest target of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA), with 26 surprise inspections on 20 separate businesses, including 10 gangmasters, as part of Operation Ajax.
At least one unlicensed gangmaster was identified and issued with an enforcement notice, with enforcement officers investigating links into further unlicensed activity in the area. Four businesses that contracted workers from an unlicensed gangmaster were also issued with enforcement notices.
The licences of some gangmasters are under threat pending further enquiries by GLA enforcement teams.
But many legitimate gangmasters, farmers and packhouses were found to meet legal requirements.
The GLA operation focused on the supply of workers to pick and pack fruit and herbs grown in the county as well as packing produce brought into the country.
The workers picking and packing the produce were mainly of Indian, Pakistani, Polish and Nepalese backgrounds.
Allegations included:
• Withholding wages - irregular payments of wages, including non-payment when the gangmaster was on holiday
• Contract irregularities - workers bonded to agency and not allowed to be employed by the labour user or leave to work for another agency
• Workers had not taken any holiday in over a year
• Workers did not receive holiday pay
• Workers forced to use company transport
• Workers had to pay for their own protective equipment to carry out the job
• Agricultural minimum wage was not paid to workers
• No contracts
GLA chairman Paul Whitehouse said: “The GLA is intent on catching the rogues and protecting the workers. We are not finished in Kent, we will be back.
“The reputable businesses were delighted to see us protecting their interests and share our determination to rid the industry of the rogues. Today it was Kent, tomorrow somewhere else; no rogue, no matter where they are, is safe from the clutches of the GLA.”
More than 20 gangmasters have had their licences revoked in just over the first quarter of the 2008 financial year.
The leap in revocations coincides with Operation Ajax, which was launched by the authority in April to stamp down on worker exploitation and abuse.
From April to mid-August, 22 gangmasters’ licences were revoked, compared to 33 in April 2007 to 2008 and 15 in April 2006 to April 2007.
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