Labour must lead the fight to end modern slavery in care
The Labour government has pledged to make work pay, with a new package of workers’ rights and sectoral Fair Pay Agreements, starting with social care. But what of those workers who fall under the radar, who are tricked into working in harsh conditions for little or no pay, and who dare not complain because their visa is sponsored by a boss who is enslaving them?
When former prime minister Theresa May introduced the world-leading Modern Slavery Act in 2015, the aim was to address the plight of women trafficked into prostitution, domestic servants kept captive in wealthy homes and child victims running drugs for criminal gangs. The Morecombe Bay tragedy in 2004, when twenty-three Chinese cockle pickers lost their lives, had also exposed the plight of modern slavery victims in food and agriculture.
Back then, few anticipated that the care sector would become a danger zone for one of the most abhorrent forms of human exploitation. Yet a new report by a House of Lords Committee records
a shocking four-fold increase in modern slavery reports in the care sector since it was added to the Home Office’ Shortage Occupation List two years ago. Our report, “Breaking Invisible Chains”, explores the toxic combination of policies that gave the green
light to modern slavery traders to target the UK’s care sector.
The Modern Slavery Act introduced a ground-breaking principle that victims should be protected, not punished. But the previous government eroded that principle with a series of immigration laws which weakened support for victims, alleging that the system put in place by the Modern Slavery Act was being abused to prolong stays in the UK. Our cross-party committee invited the then minister to provide hard data to back up that claim. None was forthcoming.
At the same time, the government had relaxed visa rules for social care in a bid to meet the recruitment and retention crisis. But there was no assessment of the risk that posed to care becoming a target for modern slavery criminals, let alone a plan to mitigate it. On the contrary, the visa sponsorship system offers modern slavery perpetrators both power and opportunity. There is little incentive for victims to report those who profit from modern slavery if the likely reward is deportation.
The committee received a good deal of evidence about a ‘continuum of exploitation’ in care work and elsewhere. Sectors scarred by low pay, insecure employment and low trade union organisation are fertile ground for modern slavery. What may begin with wages deductions for uniforms and travel, meaning workers may not even know if they are being paid the statutory minimum wage, can more easily slip into debt bondage and being forced to work under threat.
Delivery of Labour’s new deal for working people should raise labour standards across the board and disrupt that continuum of exploitation, making it harder for modern-day slavers to operate. But our committee recommends that the new government goes further. Rights are worth little without strong enforcement by a well-resourced single enforcement body, cooperation with campaign groups and trade unions, and, critically, many more labour inspectors on the ground.
Organisations should be subject to an inspection by the Care Quality Commission before they are allowed to sponsor visas for care workers. We need new duties on both private and public employers to stop the UK falling behind other countries and help root out modern slavery from supply chains. And while modern slavery is a hidden crime and investigations can be complex, the woeful prosecution rate of just 1.8% must improve.
Our report provides practical recommendations that would help stamp out this most extreme form of exploitation which has no place in a decent society. This Labour government can and must seize the opportunity to make the UK a world-leader in the battle against modern slavery once again.
Frances O'Grady, Baroness O'Grady of Upper Holloway, is a British former trade unionist leader and member of the House of Lords, who served as the General Secretary of the British Trades Union Congress (TUC) from 2013 to 2022, being the first woman to hold the position.
