Level of gangmaster policing to be reviewed under pressure

The new Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) will this month begin a consultation which could see a watering down of the original plan for policing the temporary labour market, following government pressure to ‘cut red tape’

At stake is whether the GLA applies full audits of all applicants for gangmaster licences when it begins licensing next year. The government’s Better Regulation Executive (BRE), which was set up to push for efficiency improvements in the public sector, told the GLA that it should instead carry out risk-based audits to identify applicants for full investigation.

That could let many rogue gangmasters avoid detection and gain licences to exploit workers supplied to food and drink firms, said the Transport & General Workers’ Union (T&G) and the GMB union, which are on the GLA board.

The unions had warned that the BRE’s strong pressure on the board and on the chairman John Whitehouse to restrict auditing could neuter the regulator before it even got down to work.

The government has also yet to decide whether the GLA will cover gangmasters in secondary processing such as food and drink manufacturing, as well as in more basic agricultural firms supplying secondary processors. A decision is expected in a few months, after a public consultation.

The T&G’s head of campaigns, Pauline Doyle, claimed that the BRE had told Whitehouse that to enforce its wishes it would go “to the highest level of the government”, where it claimed strong support.

However, Whitehouse said that he had headed off the BRE over the level of gangmaster inspections but that there was still disagreement over the information needed from licence applicants.

“We can’t assess risk before we evaluate it,” he said. “We are in favour of decisions based on risk but we can’t make decisions without evidence.” The BRE had suggested targets, said Whitehouse: “We said that’s ridiculous and they have climbed down.”

He said that board members had wanted him to take a tougher stance: “In my view that would have been counterproductive.” A fight could have delayed the legislation the GLA needed to operate, he said.

However, he said that most members at a board meeting late last month were now happy to apply risk-based assessments but only once the GLA had enough information on which to base such assessments. The GLA will begin an eight-week consultation on the issue on October 18.

“The GLA board came to the consensus that there should be a very strong licensing process that required auditing of some sort,” said board member Marcia Roberts, of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. “Any unhappiness there may have been was resolved at the board meeting.”

Whitehouse said that there had been no suggestion that the GLA might be hobbled by a cut in its government budget. “If that was attempted I would be getting on my high horse very quickly,” he said.