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03.10.2024

Uncovering Modern Slavery: Lessons from a Case of Exploitation in UK Businesses

The Urgent Need for Industry Collaboration and Data-Sharing to Safeguard Vulnerable Workers.

A recent investigation has revealed that a gang exploited 16 vulnerable victims from the Czech Republic, forcing them to work at a McDonald’s and a bakery supplying major supermarkets. Despite clear signs of modern slavery, the exploitation went undetected for years. Six gang members were convicted.

Dame Sara Thornton, former independent anti-slavery commissioner, commented “It really concerns me that so many red flags were missed, and that maybe the companies didn’t do enough to protect vulnerable workers”.

Several clear red flags of exploitation and coercive control were missed including: 

  • Victims’ wages being paid into bank accounts in other people’s names. This is a frequent indication of exploitation and financial abuse. Shockingly, at the McDonald’s franchise, at least four victims’ wages – totalling £215,000 – were being paid into one account, controlled by the gang.
  • Victims were unable to speak English, and job applications were completed by a gang member, who was even able to sit-in on job interviews as a translator. Being accompanied by an interpreter in formal settings such as interviews, housing, or bank applications, can be a red flag of exploitation, and ideally institutions should offer their own, trusted translator for those who need one.
  • Victims worked extreme hours at the McDonald’s – up to 70 to 100 a week. One victim worked a 30-hour shift. Employers must do more to ensure that any worker opting out of the 48 hour per week legal limit is doing so of their own volition and understands their rights fully, including their right to cancel this opt-out at any time.
  • Multiple employees had the same registered address. Nine victims lived in the same terraced home in Enfield in north London while working at the bakery.

We need to invest in efforts to prevent and disrupt modern slavery, to facilitate earlier interventions to stop these kinds of abuses. STOP THE TRAFFIK work with employers to spot red flags by training on risk that is specific to their business type, supply chain, and region of operation.

As well as these red flags, key takeaways from this case for those in the food and agriculture sector include: 

  • Supply Chain Oversight: Regular audits should be extended to worker welfare to uncover possible exploitation within supply chains.
  • Legal and Ethical Compliance: It is vital to adhere to compliance legislation such as the Modern Slavery Act and ensure all staff can identify labour exploitation and can escalate accordingly.
  • Collaboration and Corporate Responsibility: It is important to collaborate with law enforcement, NGOs, and industry bodies to address modern slavery risks and share knowledge on high-risk suppliers.

This case underscores the critical need for industry stakeholders to share data, and exchange vital information which could have spotted and stopped this exploitation sooner.

This is why the Modern Slavery Intelligence Network (MSIN) is so vital. MSIN is a pioneering online database which facilitates safe, centralised data sharing between fourteen leading organisations in the food and agriculture sector in the UK. This platform enables members to mitigate the risk of modern slavery within their supply chains and to share intelligence to improve collective knowledge.

The MSIN platform has seen multiple cases where intelligence being shared between members has led to improved outcomes through investigations by companies and law enforcement and could have helped prevent cases such as this.

As our patron Cherie Blair shared recently “Exploitation is not something happening far away, it is embedded right here in British businesses”.

Data and intelligence-sharing between competitors is critical to detect, prevent, and disrupt modern slavery and labour exploitation activity in operations and supply chains, thereby protecting workers from abuse. The model of MSIN works and STOP THE TRAFFIK plan to scale and replicate this data-sharing across other high-risk sectors in the UK, such as the construction industry and care sector.

To learn more about what your business can do to protect vulnerable people from modern slavery, contact [email protected].

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