Labour User Labour Provider webinar 8 June 2023

Labour User Labour Provider webinar slides

 

Watch the Seasonal Workers video via the link below:

Seasonal Workers video

 

Transcript of the LU/LP Meeting Recording

Suzanne (Guest)   0:07
I also if you have any questions and I would encourage questions, but I would encourage them to be put into the chat function and will try as before to answer as many of the questions you have as possible throughout the session, because I know that's excellent in terms of engagement and interaction. But if we can't do that.
We will in fact try to come back to you after the event. If you do have a question, we'd ask that you ask your question just once. We will see it up on the chat when you put it in. So I just want to cheque if Alicia is with us at the moment.

Suzanne (Guest)   0:51
Um.
Catherine, can you tell me if she's there?
Or tori.

 

Victoria Robinson   0:59
Yes, she's here.

Suzanne (Guest)   1:00
Right. Well, without further ado and drum roll and all that, uh, Alicia, we'd like to hear the GL a update from the CEO.

Elysia McCaffrey   1:17
Good morning, Suzanne. Sorry, I was having a a slightly odd technical moment. Can you hear me okay?

Suzanne (Guest)   1:24
Certainly can. So I assume others can as well.

Elysia McCaffrey   1:25
Lovely.
Great. Thank you and good morning, everybody and it's really good to see so many of you on the call. And I was just going to do 2 things today and the first was that I was just going to talk a little bit about the new GLAA strategy. And then I was going to just spend a little bit of time because I think hope you'll find this interesting talking about some of the common compliance issues that we're seeing at the moment. So some of the things you'll want to be aware of that we're finding when we're visiting people and things you're probably aware of yourself, but.

 

Elysia McCaffrey   1:57
Useful to know what the issues are that we're seeing, so the first is to say that the GLAA strategy our old strategy ran out this year and we've put together a new three-year strategy and you might have heard this talked about a little bit in other forums. So I wasn't going to spend too much time on it, but this strategy has now been signed off by ministers and the Home Office and it's being made to look nice by our design people and will be launching that document with you soon in the strategy we've got 3.

Elysia McCaffrey   2:25
Strategic goals and the first is to be a robust and effective regulator. The 2nd is about being known as experts in addressing worker abuse and exploitation, and the third strategic goal is about as being an essential enforcement partner. And on that first one about regulation and being a really effective regulator, we are a regulator. We've always been a regulator, but what we're really thinking about here is how can we be more efficient and how we work? How can we make sure that we are really supporting businesses in the right way and really making sure that.

Elysia McCaffrey   2:57
Improvements are being driven through in the most effective way we possibly can, and that we're putting the right resources into this area and so on. South. What I would hope that you will see here is a good service from us and maybe as becoming a bit more efficient, a bit more timely in how we're dealing with you. The second one around being known as experts in addressing worker abuse and exploitation is about as really using our analytical and intelligence capabilities to really influence policy and practise and develop and.

Elysia McCaffrey   3:27
Expand our prevention activities, making sure that we are directing and prioritising our work in the right way, so making sure that we're being as effective as we can be. Excuse me, you you may or may not know. There's only 120 people in the whole of glia. And as with all public bodies at the moment, we kind of been squeezed a bit on our finances. So this is about making sure that we're using what we've got, the knowledge that we've got in the most effective way that we can and prioritising.

Elysia McCaffrey   3:57
Work in the best way that we can so that we're helping as many people as possible and that third strategic goal about is being an essential enforcement partner is about us completing A strategic risk assessment and how we work and then working in collaboration with other partners. So the police and others to tackle serious worker exploitation and abuse in line with those priorities. Then so you'll see that document soon. We will make sure that once that's ready to share, you see that and we're always.

Elysia McCaffrey   4:28
Pleased to get any feedback people have about what we're doing. And as I said, Susanne, I was just gonna touch a little bit on what we're seeing in the teams at the moment. What we're seeing around compliance and some of the kind of key and regular issues that are popping up. So the first, the team often come across labour providers using umbrella companies outside of the regulated sector and micro umbrella companies without necessarily realising the implication of such companies or Hmrc's view on them. So if that's something that's ringing a bit of a bell.

Elysia McCaffrey   4:59
If you think it's worth doing some extra due diligence around that, the other thing that we're seeing quite frequently at the moment is the nonpayment of holiday pay to workers who've left organisations and what we're seeing is that companies are often not classing them as leavers, even if they've not worked for many months and therefore they're not issuing AP45 and holiday pay is remaining unpaid. And once the holiday year ends, this entitlement is lost. And then the business kind of pockets the money. All workers should be given a P-45.
After 12 weeks of no contract and with the labour provider otherwise, this indicates to us that the labour provider is potentially withholding wages and another common issue that we're seeing at the moment is around induction training and where this isn't necessarily being paid to people where induction is site specific.
And this should be treated as working time and it should be paid. We have recently found cases where workers were told to go on an induction on a certain day, but there were then not required to start work until a week or two later and then when they checked their time sheets and pay slips, the induction period hasn't been added onto their their first pay. And so this is something we're seeing quite a lot of and we want to be really mindful of and then PPEP should be offered free of charge to all workers. We are increasingly seeing.

Elysia McCaffrey   6:21
Labour providers and in we're looking at kind of interview sheets which are being completed and by consultants who interview workers, confirming if the worker already has their own PPE. So what we'll often happen is a work is being asked if they've got their own PP as it's needed for the role and then the work has kind of believed that if they say no they won't get the job. So they're saying they have got it and then they're buying it for themselves. And what really should happen is that they should be offered it and only for worker.

Elysia McCaffrey   6:52
Asks to wear their own, which may be a better quality than it should be recorded that they have been offered, and that they've declined, that free PPE and it should also be recorded that the labour provider has checked to ensure that they work as PP if they're providing their own that it is fit for purpose and safety. Boots have been an issue that we've seen quite a lot, but it's not been the right to steal and that kind of thing in in the boot. So Suzanne, as I say, I just thought a quick recap on the issues that we're seeing at the moment.
And the people on this call might be interested in today. So that was all for me. And they've got a packed agenda. So I don't wanna talk for too long.

Suzanne (Guest)   7:29
Ohh, don't go quite yet, I'll just give a minute to see if anybody wants to type a question to you in the chat. There's nothing there at the moment, but you never know.

Suzanne (Guest)   7:38
Um.
If, if if we give it a second and if we don't have anything right yet, it might be that we might come back to you. Cause I've seen we will be staying with us for the for the whole event.

Elysia McCaffrey   7:47
Of course
I wouldn't miss it.

Suzanne (Guest)   7:51
Of course not.
Nothing's come up at the moment, so I think we will move on. But as you've as if something does come up, we'll come back to you as such. There we, we won't go on to seasonal workers. Scheme sponsor perspective with Karen Good from Concordia and James Malik from Pro Force. And I know they have slides. So Karen and James if you could take centre stage.

Karen Goode   8:20
Hi, good morning everybody. Just get the presentation.
For your.

Karen Goode   8:32
Okay hopefully you can also see that. Um, yeah. Brilliant. Okay. Well, like I say good morning. My name is Karen Goode. I'm the head of commercial operations at Concordia. And James and I are this morning will just give you a brief update of where the seasonal workers scheme is with regards to operators in the how we work with our growers to ensure participant welfare and everything is in line with Home Office guidance and also the GLAA.
So stay on the screen that we are now 6 operators and Concordia fruit four and Pro Force have had their licences for a while. Hops were awarded a new licence to become a new operator at the end of last year. Agri HR and Etherow are a new to 2023 and have been have started to supply workers throughout the season unfortunately.

Karen Goode   9:31
Ag recruitment have their licence revoked and their licences were distributed to the other operators, so the amount of visas available for the workers to come over to help the British produce and grows didn't decline. It stayed the same. We also have re recruit who is poultry recruiter and that's it. The latter part of the season between October and the end of this year as well. So they're also included.

Karen Goode   10:02
In the scheme.

Karen Goode   10:05
Just want to kind of touch upon the changes in 2023 that has had an impact on the grower and growing industry. We were guaranteed 45,000 visas throughout 2023. This has also been confirmed for 2024. So this gives growers.
And you know a lot better opportunity to plan their labour better next year. We do need to have access to those licences, hopefully not on Christmas Eve or the end of December. So where we can start to really recruit and get the workers here for January that are needed. So that was a change this year of an increase of seasonal work scheme visas to come over the length of the visa continues to be six months and there was a slight change.
For participants, for workers that were here last year, they could have a five month gap from the end of their last visa to come over this year, and that was looked at this this year in line with obviously the terrible situation in Ukraine last year where Labour was very delayed.
And seasons and timings obviously changed a lot last year. There is an additional 10,000 seasonal work visas if needed and then we as operators work with our growers and I know the NFU are very keen and we'll always looking at numbers to see how we can make sure that there isn't any labour shortages this year.
The change of the guaranteed of the Fed 2 hours per week for all seasonal workers that came quite late in the season, so it was something that contracts had to be changed. Where's operators are ensuring that all parties, all worker contracts have been changed in line that every worker is guaranteed and is getting a minimum of 32 hours a week. This in itself has caused and produced challenges for growers, whereas their labour.
They have been looking to, maybe because of the introduction of this, there may have been a slight overall during. So there's been a lot of switching and a lot of looking at how the workers can be guaranteed. So that is a great positive impact for the worker because of the late notice and also because of obviously the weather's had an impact on.
Um, ours this year we are seeing and not come to the next slide of the challenges of where we're looking to see where participant welfare and participant are guaranteed there's as and how we're working to ensure that the minimum hourly rate 1042 for seasonal work scheme.

Karen Goode   12:46
Workers came into effect this year. This year's in line with national living wage, so that stopped a lot of confusion. As in, unfortunately, previously last year, where it was slightly different to national living wage. So there you know that that was welcomed.
And and obviously that um will have had an impact on orders and things like that as well, but that's great for the worker and all the operators. We are checking that those rates are being paid by our growers also this year, the UK, the UK Home Office compliance team, they've grown and this is very welcomed by everybody by the operators and the growers and the Home Office are out and about at the moment auditing all farms.

Karen Goode   13:31
To ensure that the you know the minimum and also the highest standards for accommodation for shared facilities are being adhered to, along with looking at pay slips along with looking at hours guaranteed along with looking at the pay and there's an awful lot of work that operators, growers and the Home Office are all doing this year to make sure that everyone is abiding by the new rules, they can be confusing. So we are.

Karen Goode   14:01
Obviously, trying to always be if we can one step ahead, but if not, we're always there to make sure that we're on hand to answer any questions. It's evolving all the time and the Home Office audits.
We've had good feedback in the night. The other other operators have as well and it's all to ensure that safety and that work are welfare.
It's just quickly touched upon some of the challenges and then James will go into the the areas of that we're really looking to assist with the workers to ensure that they're getting the best possible experience, but also ensuring that the growers know what their expectations of them are, which is equally as important. So the challenge is that we have seen Paul weather, crop failure has potentially had the potential of lack of hours with the Fed 2 hours guaranteed. We've had to do.

Karen Goode   14:52
Some later arrivals, so it's working with their the workers to ensure that they're gonna still trying to maximise that six month visa and also looking to see where we can support on a pastoral side as well. So that's that's had an impact transfers of workers. This is something that was introduced where every transfer request has to be looked at facilitated where possible. And I think that's really key the where possible.
Unfortunately, requests are coming in at the moment, cause workers want more hours than the 32. It's not always possible, so we're working with our growers and you know the workers to try and really explain and make sure that everything's translated. So they really understanding the impact of asking for a transfer and the reasons behind that are Ukrainian BRP, direct recruitment decline in EU settled, sorry, the Ukrainian BRP direct recruitment that has grown.

Karen Goode   15:52
Yes, yes, if that means the visas, there's some visas that would have been used for that. The decline in EU settled to recruitment and the set of participants.
You'll see that it's it's we really want to try and get the EU workers Ava, but it's very difficult when they have to pay for that visa if they haven't got that settled and if they have got settled, they can. They can choose where they work and obviously with their freedom of movement, which had a massive impact of the change of that fake agencies is big, it is huge and fortunately, but we are all where reporting everything to the GL, a processes in place with the GLA where.

Karen Goode   16:32
We're reporting everything to into and we're having caused the GLA and I think what we are seeing this year and I think the and James will agree with this as well, a lot of workers are contacting us. Is this you. So all the way we're doing in country to say you must go with the registered operator it it's having a it's starting to trickle through. So I'm I'm I'm pleased with that. There's still a lot of work to do on that and that leads into James, he'll be able to tell you what we're all doing.

Karen Goode   17:04
To assist with that.
I'm just gonna stop sharing.
Ohh.
This is too technical right okay. Here we go.
Thank you.

James Mallick   17:22
Thanks, Karen. So hopefully everybody can see my screen now. See me on screen and hear me OK. So yeah, Karen, thanks for that introduction into some of the challenges that we're seeing this year.
And each year with the seasonal work scheme that there are varying challenges and they change from year to year. I'm James Malik. I'm compliance director here at Pro Force Pro Force are the largest of the sponsors were 1111 thousand visas supplying both horticulture and poultry.
The seasonal worker scheme represents about a third of our total recruitment.
I'm going to detail some of the activities that are happening to try and prevent some of the challenges that that Karen has talked about. And firstly, I'm delighted that after a significant number of edits, re edits and re edits and caused by the ever changing landscape of the seasonal worker scheme and pleased to confirm that this week, finally an education video was launched with a seasonal worker scheme.
In the video, we see workers from across the world speaking about working on UK farms and the intention is that we increase awareness of employment rights for applicants within the seasonal work scheme.
The film is part of a package of measures to protect and educate workers and ensure that expectations of seasonal work in the UK are matched by the reality and also combat some of the fake information that's available online that Karen talked about.
Work is a also discuss how they were recruited for the scheme and we hear from workers explaining that they've not had to pay any job finding fees, which is some of the sort of challenges around fake adverts that we see.

James Mallick   19:07
We all say, um, have workers explaining what a normal working day involves and how they're paid, what they're accommodation like is like and and what they do in their spare time.
And it also picks up on one of the challenges challenges that Karen mentioned in the rise of fraudulent advertising and and and job recruitment scams. And finally, the video ends with workers giving advice to those workers coming to the UK on the scheme, as well as providing contact details for the work right centre, an independent charity specialising providing advice to migrant workers about employment rights in the UK.
Workers will be able to watch the theme in film in English with version subtitled into Bulgarian, Indonesian, Kazak, Nepali, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Tajik, Ukrainian and Uzbek. Those translations are being finalised and will be available in the next week or so.

James Mallick   19:58
The video was created by Pro Force, but has received ongoing support from the GLAA and the video will actually be hosted and owned by the GLAA going forwards.
Continuing on that theme of worker education, I wanted to update you on the progress and developments being made with the just good work app.
Just good work is a free multilingual app that gives workers critical information about living and working in the UK and where to go for help if needed.

James Mallick   20:25
The offline capability means that once downloaded, just could work. Can be used without an Internet connexion.
Information is provided in the worker's own language on their own device and can be accessed whenever it's convenient to them.
Pro Force first supported just good work in 2021 when we covered the cost of translating the app into Ukrainian, and in 2022 the UK S largest supermarkets and some of the seasonal worker scheme operators funded the development of a seasonal workers scheme portal in the just good work app to help workers gain quality and safe seasonal work in the UK.
As well as enabling a live picture of recruitment and working conditions across the scheme.
The app has been used by nearly 20,000 people this year, and there's been nearly 14,000 new downloads.
The user location data shows us that the app is mainly being used by those in key source countries of the seasonal worker scheme, with Russian being the most frequently used language. Russian is is one of the most common languages spoken in some of the key source countries around Central Asia.
And the data also gives us some great insights into what users are most interested in.
As you'd expect of a scheme that is seen as a great opportunity by many migrant workers, how to apply is the number one viewed section.
The section includes key messages on how to avoid scams and what applications, what applicants should and shouldn't pay for. Then the app seems to be making a real difference in educating workers, as Karen said, what we are seeing more and more of is workers contacting us and as a result of the information in the just good work app and as a result of some of the other activities that are happening to cheque, whether adverts they've seen or real, or whether they should pay for certain things.

James Mallick   22:12
In Pro force in 20. Sorry in 2023, Pro Force Concordia agree. HR, fruitful jobs. Etherow, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose, Tesco's Marks and Spencer's coop, ALDI, Lidl and the LP have all committed to continue to fund the project and further developments have already been planned.
Users will be able to receive push notifications so that we can get key messages out there at certain times of the year. For example, focusing on how to avoid fake agencies earlier in the year when many more jobs are being advertised and later in the year that could change to information about what to do if the worker has a problem whilst in the UK.
The onboarding process has been simplified to make it easier for users to download the app, and later in the year there will be live surveys issued through the app, providing real time information about workers lived experience of the scheme in the UK, and they'll also be improved data reporting.
Finally, I'd like to update you on the work being done by the seasonal Worker Scheme Task Force, which started in autumn 2022 when a series of multi stakeholder round tables were held.
The task force is focused on developing practical solutions to continue developing improve the seasonal worker scheme for all involved.
The task force is currently made-up of over 50 organisations, including retailers, growers, scheme operators, trader membership associations, migrant worker community organisations and non profits, who are all actively contributing to the various working groups and activities.
Task force activities are currently being coordinated by, not-for-profit organisations stronger together as the secretariat and governed by multi Stakeholder Governance Committee. Representing these groups. Very pro Force and Concordia and members of the Governance Committee.
On the 25th of April this year, members and observers of the season are work scheme held an in person event meeting to assess the task, forces progress to date, measure its impacts and discuss best ways of working with government to improve the scheme's design and prioritised task force activities for 2023 and beyond.
Stakeholders discuss progress made thus far and next steps in each of the task forces. 5 work streams working groups have been meeting regularly to identify priority, identify and prioritise a a realistic and impactful set of activities to make improvements within the scheme, design and work with government departments on potential changes to the scheme, the rules, the regulations, oversight and enforcement. The five key work streams are education informants and grievance mechanisms, which looks to support and enable the provision of appropriate.
Detailed information to workers during the recruitment process and when they're in the UK, so predecisional predeparture on arrival to farm and and and that will help inform the worker's decision making and manage their expectations and hopefully therefore have a positive scheme experience.
The due diligence and good practise during recruitments working group is looking at increasing understanding of country specific risks, improving the quality and integrity of the scheme operates your assessment process and increase the supply chain transparency supply chain transparency.
To enable more effective due diligence.
As part of this work stream, stronger together has developed a responsible recruitment progress assessment to enable labour providers and the intermediaries in their supply chain to independently verify progress in implementing responsible treatment, good practise and to continuously improve through access to guidance, resources and training.
The intention is that when organisations have been through the process, they will share the report with their supply chain, reducing order duplication. The assessment is backed by all the major retailers and said expert paid for by the operator undergoing the assessment.
Pro Force are aiming to commence the responsible recruitment progress assessment in the coming weeks and Concordia in the process of signing up pending some contract amendments.
The due diligence and good practise on Farm Group looks to support growers. This is where workers will spend the majority of their time in the process.
And enhance that recruit experience on farm as part of the work stream, the LP is delivered regional growth of good practise roadshows and the toolkit reaching over 380 attendees, 150 different growers across 7 regional and three online events.

James Mallick   26:25
More information about the grower roadshows can be found on the food Farm help website and I'll post the link to that in the chat afterwards.
The scheme cost recruitment fees and retained earnings. Working group seeks to make tangible progress on effectively improving the financial position of work as well as they're here on the scheme. Looking at the net income and how we can best support them to achieve those goals.

James Mallick   26:50
And then finally, finally, the policy and enforcement Stakeholder Group looks to take all the policy asks from each work stream and any emerging areas and put them into a comprehensive list for the government to take forwards.
So thanks for listening. If you have any questions, please drop them in the chat. Connect with me on LinkedIn, visit the Pro Force News section on our website or drop me an e-mail and I'll also put these links in the chat as well.
Thank you.

Suzanne (Guest)   27:16
Thank you very much, James and Karen as well. We haven't had any chat questions as yet. Again, you and Karen are staying in case other things come up. I'll just give it a minute to see whether or not anyone's typing furiously out there and and wants to send you a question or comment.
But you're not going, are you? You're staying with us. Excellent. I know you're putting things into the chat, James.
There's nothing coming up, so I think we'll move on. But you're with us so we can pick you up if something comes through, cause what we're going to be talking about next with Darrell engaging with new source countries has a a relationship to what you've been talking about. So Darryl, could I ask you to come on screen?

Darryl Dixon   28:05
Thanks. Thanks, Suzanne. Um, I did notice there is a question in the chat from.

Suzanne (Guest)   28:09
Not according to mine. I'm looking at type a new message on my chat and I have nothing there.

Darryl Dixon   28:15
Yeah, it was dropped in at 11:28.

Suzanne (Guest)   28:18
There's nothing in mind. I don't know if there's well, read it out and and we'll hear it.

Darryl Dixon   28:24
Look, I don't know. James has done. If you can see it as well. But it says did Pro Force experience any challenges of excessive recruitment fees and related costs being charged to workers in their home countries by an authorised actors? Is there any measures to assess that? He's asking this as he didn't see this as your challenge and have detected unlicensed Napoli based and acting agencies brackets Poseidon human capital closed brackets without Nepal recruitment.
Since doing Pro force recruitment in Nepal also work as departing to UK from Nepal, report currently over charging on flights and visa costs by third parties introduced to them by Poseidon.

Suzanne (Guest)   29:08
By the way, I've now got the chat question, so I'll pick up the next one. But James, if you want to take that one first.

James Mallick   29:14
Yeah, sure, no problem until um. So I think there's probably a wider challenge in the scheme of of some of that fake and fraudulent advertising and and certainly we saw last year unapproved actors inserting themselves into the supply chain and and and effectively conning work is into paying things that they didn't need to.
And whilst I'm not gonna comment on any particular cases on this forum, I believe signing human capital have the right to recruit legally in in, in the pool and.
You know, all workers have their own choices as to how they can book their flights. Um, and make their travel arrangements to the UK, and that's true across the whole of the scheme.

Suzanne (Guest)   29:57
Thank you, James. We also have another question from Oliver Fisher, which goes concerning the additional 10,000 visas. Are you able to provide any information on what conditions need to be met for these to be released?

James Mallick   30:12
Among the screen, so I'll answer that. The short answer to that is no, and we at the moment there's 45,000 visas available and I've just encourage anybody who's on the call who does need any labour this year to reach out to one of the operators who who Karen detailed earlier. And we're all still keen to help whether that is through the processing of new visas, if time allows. And as Karen mentioned, there's, you know, some some weather challenges.
Which is creating transfers so you know there is Labour available and if people need to please do reach out to one of the operators. Um.
And in terms of the 10,000 visas being released, I think once we get to that number of 45,000, I think that's when when you know people like the NFU who would do a really great job of representing the industry will be able to provide the data to different Home Office to show that those additional visas are needed.

Suzanne (Guest)   31:08
Caring. Do you want to add anything?
No.

Karen Goode   31:12
No, that's that's that's that's exactly it.

Suzanne (Guest)   31:16
Thank you, Dale. I don't see anymore questions. I don't think you do either, do you?

Darryl Dixon   31:23
No, but there is a point I'll pick up on in relation to that first one that James has picked and also from ages the sort of like almost like a segue into what I'm gonna speak about but very, very briefly on the Paul obviously there are there were issues last year certainly issues about intermediaries operating in the country and charging fees that is something that we are very conscious of and where we come across those issues we will liaise with the authorities and my presentation in a moment.

Suzanne (Guest)   31:25
OK. Well, we'll.
Ohh.
Okay.

Darryl Dixon   31:53
Talk about what we are actually doing, but clearly one of the problems within the pool has been and continues to be our ability to liaise with the Department of Foreign Employment Employment there. We had initial contact and then it dried up. We don't know what the issue is and we continue to pursue that. There's a second comment below Oliver's from Agis regarding Indonesian seasonal workers.

Suzanne (Guest)   32:16
Asking her to.

Darryl Dixon   32:17
And and I think there was some similar issues experienced by some Indonesian workers and that I think may have caused a move away from recruitment from that area. But what I would say in relation to Indonesia is we've got very good relationships that have developed with the with their embassy here. And I have had a on a video conferences with their Labour inspectorate in the Ministry Deep B BP2M I. But what we can't do.
Is we can't dictate to the seasonal worker scheme operators where they recruit, which countries they choose, and obviously those seasonal work scheme operators have got to assess their risks when considering recruitment. And clearly where there are where a recruiter is using a subcontractor in a foreign country, then that's where the GLAA gets involved because it comes into the the need for us to actually have a look a GLAA Licence and that can lengthen the process and I'll just cover that briefly in the presentation.

Suzanne (Guest)   33:22
You know.
Before you thought the presentation, I've seen that there are a few more questions for James, Karen. So if you stay on visual, but let's look at these. Emma Brown has said great info. James, thank you. The website and apps you mentioned, we will definitely review them. We are construction industry recruitment. So this will help us. Nice to know all of our fishers come back again to say I've seen that it mentions that adhering to work a welfare standard. But if there are specific info on conditions that would be helpful.

Darryl Dixon   33:25
Hmm.
OK.

James Mallick   33:54
And if I could just jump in there, I think.

Suzanne (Guest)   33:54
And.
Yes. And then it's the last one.

James Mallick   33:57
Yes. And what we did see last year was obviously some media reports of of things like substandard accommodation, work is not receiving work and also seasons and being short in than expected. So um, certainly things like adherence to the FPC standards of accommodation, the minimum hours of 32 being brought into the scheme as a whole is beneficial and gives workers protection whilst they're on farm. There is always a risk that the seasonality of fresh produce.
Causes things to finish earlier than planned if, if if weather isn't playing ball, which often it doesn't. So I think there's a whole host of things that need to be adhered to.

Suzanne (Guest)   34:37
At the last cup chat I have is from agus Haryono. I hope I pronounce that correctly. It said and I'm not sure you can answer this, but please help us. You should recruit Indonesian seasonal workers to get back to work as a pickers in UK farms, so I think that's just a plea for Indonesian seasonal workers, which I'm sure you'll take note of. I think that is the last of the chat questions. I've checked twice. So Darrell, I think we will now have you come on.

Suzanne (Guest)   35:07
Centre stage.

Darryl Dixon   35:09
Thank you. And I noticed that Derby's made a further comment, but obviously that's something we can take away offline and look at rather than discuss further as James has already commented on that.
So I'll share a couple of slides.
To help with this, just to go through.
Hopefully you'll be able to see this in a second.
So if that's showing, hopefully. Yeah. OK. So briefly, I want to to just cover the framework at the moment and explain therefore the context of what we've been doing recently. As you'll appreciate from the from the comments I made a moment ago, we've experienced issues in Nepal and we've experienced issues with Indonesian recruitment as well. And consequently, we have tried to and more successfully with Indonesia have been successful in liaison with the the equivalent authorities.

Suzanne (Guest)   35:38
Yes it is.

Darryl Dixon   36:06
Yeah. And that's something that we will always do and that's because the framework that we actually operate in now any of the seasonal worker scheme operators, all of the companies you saw on the earlier slides from Karen are also gerlier licence holders. And that's a fundamental cornerstone of the process because of course since 2006, any operator providing workers into agriculture has to have a licence. And if any of our operators use subcontractors and those subcontractors are actually in a.
Outside the UK and they're recruiting country then they have to hold a licence and that's required by section five of our our licence and clearly we have a controlled element in that regard because anybody that uses an unlicensed subcontractor.
Could actually therefore be committing a criminal offence, so it's important that we make sure we are aware of who is being used as a subcontractor and if that subcontractor is outside the country that we therefore liaise with the authorities in that recruiting country to try and get them licence, get the liaison with the our equivalent authorities to assess whether that business is in fact compliant with the domestic labour laws.
And as I say, if you use a subcontractor and it's on licenced, therefore that's a criminal offence and that's where we would have to look at how the the UK licence holder was liaising with them and working with them, because that would also commit an offence. Now, as I'll come on to in a moment, obviously, of course, if a government agency is actually involved in the process rather than a private recruitment agency.
The law says that we have to licence any subcontractor, but we can within the UK the GL a Licencing Act itself applied discretion not to do so, and that's something that can help with the process just to move on.
Actually get up. So it should have been on the slides and then?
To the second slide, so.
All the SWS operators obviously have that UK BR licence that's been talked about in relation to the visas that they can fill and the it's important to understand the framework and the way that we we interrelate with UK VRI and how that that is a key part of our process going forward as well. UK VI compliance might inspections might identify noncompliances and that could lead to a revocation of an operator's licence. Karen talked about that in her presentation.
And where that occurs, we naturally have to then review whether the GL a licence should continue or also be revoked. I mean the the licence holder would not be allowed to continue to operate and recruit outside the UK, but they may still be able to recruit and supply workers within the UK. And whether we would have revoked the licence would be dependent upon what issues and be discovered. However, going the other way, if the GLA found grounds to revoke the licence of one of its licence holders who was a seasonal worker scheme.
Operator, then, that would undermine that ability of that community to continue to operate and be allowed to to be controlled and authorised by UK VI. So we work together to make sure that where, where, where we do identify problems, we get a common understanding and a common and a proportionate approach to dealing with that both of those things are really looking at what happens in the UK and it's difficult where some of the issues that may be occurring are occurring.
Upstream as of mentioned where a regular operators may get into the the worker supply and therefore charge fees, and we want to try and control that as much as possible so.
This gets us into some of the work we've done previously more effectively pre Brexit when we worked across the EU with other labour inspectorates and you're a poll and consequently in the in the world that we now live in where we're recruiting across globally.
A in terms of these workers, we are dealing with countries and authorities that we've never dealt with before. We don't understand the labour laws to begin with and we need to build those relationships. So at the moment there's been quite a lot of work done in terms of recruiting in Kurdistan, as Becky, Stan and Tajikistan and clearly we needed to understand those labour laws and compliance. And if in any of those countries any of the seasonal work seem operators were using or intending to use a private recruitment agency.
That's where the Giulia needs to get that agency to apply for a licence, but also get the knowledge from the authorities in those countries to assess whether the company is compliant with domestic labour laws. And that's what what one of the key parts of why we've been working to build the relationship with the authorities in those countries. And we also want to try and look at how those arrangements can reduce those risks of potential exploitation. And in these three countries, the process that's evolving.
A sister's considerably in reducing those risks. What's actually happening is that UK Foreign Office, through its stability and Security Fund, has been funding activity by the International Office for more migrant Organisation for Migration, who are supporting the government agencies in those countries in capacity training, pre departure training so that the workers are aware of the circumstances, the type of work they're doing and what to expect in the country.
In a variety of ways, accommodation, whether and so on, and the videos has now been produced at that James referred to is something else that I want to ensure the FCD are also building in with the I M as another tool to raise that awareness.
What also helps is that the in these countries, the centres for migration, have have been making arrangements with a seasonal workers scheme. Operators, particularly Pro Force and and Hobbs into.
Providing A filtering and exercise assisting in the recruitment of those workers that eventually then get selected by the seasonal worker scheme operators. Now what that's done is that's also taken the private agencies out of the loop. And so that's reduced the risk for us. And in this regard, as I mentioned on my early slide, because the subcontractor of the seasonal worker scheme operators is actually a government agency, then the Giulia can apply its discretion.
Not to require a licence. That means there isn't a delay in the process before those those workers can start to come from the the from those countries in terms of the GLAS impact on the process, we can't influence the speed of visas, but certainly we can reduce the time element by not requiring A licence of that of those government centres and therefore with the agreements we've signed, we build that relationship with them so that if we do identify issues or if they identify issues.
And how those workers are treated or if other individuals are into inserting themselves in the process and charging fees, we can start to take work to tackle it. So a lot of work for us in these new countries, but certainly in relation to these three countries and the work that we're doing, the iom's doing and the seasonal work scheme operators have been doing with those centres, the government agencies starts to build a framework that helps to speed those workers through to where the vacancies are, but also reduce some of the risks that we would otherwise encounter.
And have more longer term difficulty dealing with in relation to the risk of exploitation.
And that's it.

Suzanne (Guest)   43:52
Terrell, that's really very helpful. And as you say, a very good continuation of the discussion that was done by Concordia and Pro Force. I'm looking in the chat again and I've been continually looking to see if there are questions. Can you see any questions for you specifically?

Darryl Dixon   44:10
Not at the moment.

Suzanne (Guest)   44:12
No. So I'm not mad. I'm The thing is, I have to keep pressing the chat to see whether or not a question has come in.

Darryl Dixon   44:14
Ohh.
Yeah.

Suzanne (Guest)   44:19
Um again? What I would ask you to do is stay with us, and people may come up with questions as we go through, but I will move on now then to Martin Pimer, Plimmer to talk about a modern slavery case. Martin.

Darryl Dixon   44:23
Yep.

Suzanne (Guest)   44:40
Hopefully Martin is with us.
There he is. Excellent. Hello, Martin.

Martin Plimmer   44:46
Thought I am it just wasn't unmuting at the time. Good morning, everybody. Please, just bear with me while I just download my slides and then I'll introduce myself and.

Suzanne (Guest)   44:49
No prob.
Keep checking whether anything else is coming to the chat. We do have something, I think.

Martin Plimmer   44:59
OK.

Suzanne (Guest)   45:02
Um, let's get it up.

Suzanne (Guest)   45:05
We have something from Emma.
Which thanks James for the web website.
Um, and then we have an answer to that about the main app is relevant to all work in the UK, so it certainly recommend taking a look at FERA etcetera.

Suzanne (Guest)   45:24
Thank you, James, for answering that.
How you doing, Martin?

Martin Plimmer   45:31
Yeah, I'm just uploading now, hopefully.

Suzanne (Guest)   45:34
Excellent.
There you go.

Martin Plimmer   45:38
Fantastic.

Suzanne (Guest)   45:38
Ohh.

Martin Plimmer   45:44
Hopefully you can also see that just bear with me while I get on to slide, right. So my name's Martin Plummer. I'm one of four senior investigating officers that work for the GLA. We all have the same remit. I just have responsibility for the NW, which is the top end of Wales, Cumbria, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Scotland and Northern Ireland. So that's my remit there now just been asked to take you through a recent case.
So I've been involved in and it does have relevance to the collaborative work that takes place between our Labour users and providers that report to the case to us, so I'll just move it on and I'll hopefully take it through and you'll find some interest. So at Bolton Crown Court on Tuesday, 9th of May, we had 52 year old man by the name of Nell, and the Cheetah appeared at Bolton Crown Court. He was a Romanian national. It's a case that's been going on since 2019.
I'm not just adds to the difficulties we have keeping victims on board and because of COVID and all the problems around the court process, he took a long while to come to court. However, the man appeared at court and he pleaded guilty to an offence under the Modern Slavery Act and the offence that he pleaded guilty to was section two of the Modern Slavery Act, which is basically as it says there, the facilitation organising that the travel of another person with a view to be exploiting that person as I go through the case, you will see the facilitation, the transport.
Originally took place in Romania, but the offence then continued once with they were in the UK if facilitated the transport to work and control their movement, so the offence occurred abroad and once they arrived in the UK.
So as I said there the case originally came about in 2019.
So just a pictorial representation of the case and just to take you through how it's happened. So the Cheetah was based in Oldham, he was a Romanian national. As I said, he was working within the UK and what he did, he reached out to other Romanian nationals that were working in the UK and said to them, do you have relatives? Do you have friends who may wish to work within the UK and his sole intention was to recruit people to come to the UK so he could exploit them. So what he did, he had contacts. He was given numbers and he reached out to a number of victims.
Said to them, would you like to come to the UK? I can arrange work for you and I will arrange transport for you. Most of the victims that we came across said, well, don't have the funds to get to the UK and part of the exploitation was don't worry, I'll provide the transport for you and then you can pay me back once you get to the UK.
So what happened was he contacted a number of people and said, I want you to go to this location within Romania where they'll be a minibus waiting for you. Your name will be on the list there and if you can find other friends and relatives to bring with you, that would be great as well. So the victims told the tale of that they went to this location. They were ticked off on a list. They were putting their minibus and then over a 2-3 day journey, they ended up in Oldham. When they arrived in Oldham.
Well met by the Cheetah, who then paid the minibus driver in cash and then took the victims to his own house in Oldham and put them in a house there.
What happened with the main victim? He brought a friend across with him and when he went to the house at the time there were eight people living in the house, which was controlled by the Cheetah. As I said, they were all charged. They were told they would have to pay £100.00 for their transport. That was the start of the debt ******* that they were put into. They were told that would be deducted from the wages.
There were crammed into a house. There were two or three people sharing bedrooms. The as we quite often experienced their mattresses on the floor. It wasn't the best of conditions. They were told that they would be fed once a day. The meal would be provided by an A Cheetah's wife. That was the only meal they would be provided they had no choice of when they could eat. They were told to eat us at a specific time.
There were also told the agreement was that the cheetah would obtain employment for them.
But that I would have to work 30 working days without payment to prove their worth and then at the end of that 30 days he would pay them 500 pounds.
So what he did once she had set them up in the address, he applied for a cards for them on their behalf. Payment cards that were sent to the address he took control of those cards and the PIN numbers. So when he did find them employment and those details were given to the the labour provider user.
All that money was going into those accounts, which on the face of it was legitimate because workers had been recruited, had gone through an induction process. They've got an address that they were living at and they've got a bank account for the money to go into.
But obviously what was happening was in the cheetah was.
And controlling that money. And they never saw any of that money.
What he then did he actively got involved in induction process with an agency. He took the workers to induction process. He sat down with them, told them how to fill in the forms, etcetera. He transported them to and from the induction process. They were all successful in obtaining employment.
And it happened to be a poultry farm in deciding Wales. So on a daily basis and a cheetah would take them in his people carrier.
And he would take them to the location where they would work. He'd be charging them transport, etcetera. And then he would return them at the end of the day.
The main victim in the case described that he he was quite destitute. He wanted to send money back home, so he approached the cheater and said look, you know I it's it's not right that I'm having to wait for my money. So the only payment he had was he had an initial payment of £80 which was so he could buy cigarettes and other commodities and then he had two further payments of 100 pounds, which you could send home.
Um.
During that time, we estimated he earned over 2000 pounds. Similar story was told by the other victims. But then what happened? Which is where it shows the the good link between our agencies, GLA licence holders and the JLA.
The because of good processes and messages that were being delivered and I will show that it was stuff like that. That was the agency because of the way they operate. The victim felt that he could approach them and tell them that he was being exploited.
And I have to say they dealt with it very well. They listen to his store. They took an account of it and then from checking the records, they were able to identify a commonality of this address, that there were a number of workers that were living at the address that the victim said it was. So we were able to start our investigation.
They facilitate the scene, the the victims. The victim gave their account as I've just outlaid to you and what he did show and were able to obtain evidence in that slide there will show that.
The main offender, the trees. Who is the one you can see holding cash? What he would do um once a week once the wages had been paid, he would go to certain agms in the Oldham area and he would access and take out all of the wages that have been paid into those workers. So we had very good evidence.
Around the issue of he was controlling those bank accounts.
And he was basically fleecing them.
As I said, the role of the labour provider, you know, they they facilitated this, this trust that they were the victim, was able to come forward, they were able to do it, you know, internal processes and and and look at it.
It highlighted that there had been threats to the victims as the victims told us their stories. They talked about there had been physically assaulted when they complained, 1 victim talked about when he did complain, he was thrown out into the street on a winter's night. He wasn't allowed back into the house for 24 hours. There were other issues of if they complained the Cheetah would switch off the water to the rooms and the heating. So all various levels of exploitation that took place.
The culmination of the account, as we did as we did further investigation, you know, we on the day we executed a warrant at the House and there were eight people in the House and we unearthed 5 victims because of various complexities involved in it, only one victim came forward and and supported the investigation. The other four confirmed what was going on and mirrored the levels of abuse.
And um, but they decided not to support. They went back to the the host country or moved on. And again, that's some of the complexities we find.
One thing I would highlight to.
To Labour provided Labour users on the call is what what I would ask a please what would we're finding now historically and you would find out through your audit processes?

Martin Plimmer   55:20
That there would be originally a commonality of a bank account, so there will be lots of money paid into a bank account.
The criminals have moved on from that now, but what I would ask you to look if you have the ability to do is look at commonality of addresses and what I mean by that. In a recent investigations that I've undertaken, what we've found is that there will be a holding address. So you might only have five people registered at an address and that's perfectly fine. But if you look historically back through your records, you might find 20 or 30 other workers have also been registered to that address.
Historically, and the recent case in Liverpool, one address we found 117 victims going through one address over a period of time. So when you look at your audit audits and your cheques and balances, that's one thing I would I would flag up to and ask you to do.
And I was just say on the face of it, a very simple case. But it just shows how, as I say, when it's highlighted, how we can work together, it just showed how we can look after victims taken through the court process. And I've interested the sentencing will take place on the 26th of June at Bolton Crown Court. Obviously we have no influence over what the the sentence will be. He's pleaded guilty to the exploitation of 1 victim.

Martin Plimmer   56:49
But as I say, we know that there were a number of other victims and and, you know, without being too fanciful, I can honestly say that if we hadn't intervened, I think that exploitation would still be taking place. And, you know, we have rescued a minimum of five victims from that situation. So again, it's just.
A real solid shout out for how collaboratively, how we can rescue victims.
Take offenders through the court process and working together we have, you know, this result and I'm certainly open to any questions or I don't wanna labour the point, but hopefully you will see the levels of exploitation that do take place it to me it doesn't matter about the financial side of it. It's the issue of those victims in that situation what they had to suffer.
Um, you know that's what we're here to, to put a stop to. So we're. I'll pause this Suzanne, if there's any anything you want to add to that.

Suzanne (Guest)   57:48
Well, I certainly have one comment that's coming from Joanne Young who says it's a great tip on checking historical addresses. So I no doubt some people will go out and actually do that afterward and continue to do that. I'll just see if there's anything else that has come in from anyone on your topic. I don't see that, but I have some people come back to Darrell and James and I assume they will pick up because they're asking.
To get in touch after the event. As such, I haven't seen Darrell. Do you wanna say something?

Darryl Dixon   58:26
Yeah, just to add the point I'd made earlier.
Although it's addressed to to to me therefore to the GLA with regard to recruiting, Indonesian sees and workers, the gelia's responsibility is not to propose that operators prioritise particular countries for recruitment. It is for the operators to decide and liaise with UK VI over the visas they get and where they go to drone, recruit them our role wherever they go to recruit is to make sure those workers, when they do come, are not exploited. But we we can't encourage the operators to go to particular countries, that's a matter for them.

Suzanne (Guest)   58:38
Ohh.

Darryl Dixon   59:03
Commercially.

Suzanne (Guest)   59:05
Thank you. Other people are coming back. Martin, to thank you for your tip about checking addresses, but there aren't any questions as such for you at the moment. So if you stay with us, please just in case more. Come in and we'll go to just Clayton if we can. On victim navigator.
And you unmute Jessica.

Jessica Clayton   59:29
So I am.
Here we go.
It should be loading.
Can everybody see that? Can you see that, Suzanne?

Suzanne (Guest)   59:37
It's there, it's there.

Jessica Clayton   59:40
Lovely. Thank you.
And.
Hello I forgot it. I'm Jess. I am a victim navigator who works for an amazing charity called Justice and Care. My role is actually embedded within GLA, so I have the privilege of supporting the syndicates, including Martin's team in supporting the victims that they identify.

Jessica Clayton   1:00:06
So just I'll give you enough for you just to think care if I were to delve in a bit deeper into what my support plans would look like in terms of supporting the victims that JLAD identify. And so just as in care is a modern slavery charity, we have different departments. One is the victim Navigator programme who are embedded within law enforcement, mostly police forces. But my role is a little bit special because.

Jessica Clayton   1:00:36
And with a GL yeah. And we also have our systemic change department who take information from our cases on what needs to be improved and works with the Home Office and other stakeholders improving their Victim Support approach.
We do our best to use a victim centred approach, although we're there to support the investigations and our priority is is the victim themselves and making sure that they're comfortable with anything that's being asked of them.

Jessica Clayton   1:01:08
Sorry, you'll probably hear my phone, but in between and so as well as providing support directly to victims, we also are sat strategic level within our law enforcement so that we can better direct their victim focused approach.
And and where strategically put within law enforcement, but also within the source countries as well. So we're in Romania, Bangladesh and we've just started up in the US at the minute, as you can appreciate, the charity only being 5-6 years old and was still fairly new and and getting out there.
So the purpose of the victim Navigator programme is to improve Victim Support, strengthen modern slavery investigations and increased prosecutions rates because where there to look after the victim focusing on their recovery journey, but also what's right for them in terms of the investigation as such as are any special measures needed to support that victim and provide in their evidence and supporting the prosecution. We also look at their recovery.
Then getting them back into work, for example finding them new accommodation and getting them into community community groups.
And our methodology is, you know, if were there at the beginning to to build that report and get them in a positive mindset for their recovery journey, positive mindset for the prosecution cause, it can be quite traumatising for them. A stronger victim makes us stronger witness and makes a more credible at car and.
Put them in a situation where they feel more comfortable in sharing what happened to them.
So as well as the part in the victims were there to support any investigators involved in the programme and because, as you can appreciate, a lot of victims of modern slavery due to tend to have complex needs, whether that's happened as a result of the exploitation, you know, with them being traumatised or whether they were complex needs that made them vulnerable to exploitation. So, for example, any learning difficulties, substance misuse.
And lack of English for example.
And and where that manage the date today, um needs of those victims. You know, taking taking the phone calls, providing that reassurance being that, you know, having to hold through their journey whilst the investigators can focus on the investigation and getting that positive prosecution.
So my role is an embedded within GLA and so I do support the the investigators in supporting their victims. So just a few examples of the support needs that.
And we might have with the support plans for the victims and access to accommodation, so that might be safe, houses that might be move on accommodation after the safe house, finding them private rental accommodation, sourcing donations, funding for financial support, retrieving and moving any property. So hiring vans is also on my job description and travelling around and helping them retrieve their property from their exploiters.

Jessica Clayton   1:04:44
Address and a moving it to where they are and currently.
Also, getting them back into employment and education, so helping them with any application forms and CVS. We're also doing some amazing partnership, working with bright futures and staff line and who have kindly got little projects going on, getting victims of modern slavery back into work.
And in terms of the investigation, helping the syndicate setting up reception centres, making sure that they're suitable for the client's needs, supporting the investigators and completing the referrals to the national referral mechanism, which is the home offices and support for modern slavery victims.
And supporting any interviews and answering any questions that victims might have, and something that is quite common, is that they expect a really quick turn around. But as many of you may appreciate, in the UK, it's quite a slow journey. Getting it from investigation stage to prosecution and getting it sorted within cart, they sometimes expect it might take one or two months.
When in reality it might be one or two years before it's it's in court and that's nothing to do with GLA and there is a backlog because of Cova didn't and everything. I think Martin touched upon it.
And we also support in any Precourt visits, so as you might appreciate, visiting card standing up in court can be very intimidating, and people might not have been in court for prior to this. So booking in those Precourt visits lets them get used to their surroundings. And my what might be expected of them on the day and gives them an idea of what might be asked.

Jessica Clayton   1:06:47
There are special measures that can be put in place where victims don't actually have to attend in person at court, which is brilliant, and so they can just attend via video link, which is is always the best option. But actually some victims do want to attend in person and stand up for themselves and stand up against their exploiter.

Jessica Clayton   1:07:11
And there's loads of different other support needs that our victims have, you know that a lot of times it's getting their ID reissued because often exploiters will withhold ID and any bank had ads as a farmer of control and away to financially exploit them, access to any share code. So this is extremely important when wanting to move on to different accommodation or move on to different work.
Exploring different hobbies, we've got quite a lot of artists on our caseload at the minute and it's something that that might not have done for for years.
And so re exploring that then with them is really interesting. And so the case is that I've got the minute within GL a, we've got 18 victims that are on support plans, which are forever changing to suit their needs. And we've got 100% engagement rate at the moment.
Um.
And that we're kind of go with the methodology as well of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. This triangle in the middle there and if anybody's done psychology it's it's usually the basics and news within a lot of research and what we say is that.
We need to meet those bottom tiers before we can expect our victims to come forward and stand up in court and stand up against their.
Their exploiter. So we need to look at those basic needs to begin with, build them up to a play place where the regained some self esteem and the think for themselves. You know, there were functioning adult again and at that point we can expect them to provide really good evidence.
So all the areas that I've been involved in so much, I'm gonna have that.
And the we've just started some lunch and learns with NGLA, which is bringing in outside organisations and to give an update on what they're doing then in their world. So that might be other NGOs or the charities, it might be other areas of Home Office that might be able to support us in supporting victims and there's tonnes of projects out there which are amazing. So it's very worthwhile.
Getting external partners in, we've also got our victim liaison Working group, which has only just started actually, but they sees.
A variety of colleagues across the LA coming together, looking at how we can better improve our approach to supporting our victims and also the workers as well that are identified.
And we've got it dedicated Victim Support web page. We've had some national policy changes within BBC News and CPS after a victims and viarra the video that they do for court was released and broadcasted without his consent and some some amazing national policy changes there around the consent that is required.
And we've had a meeting with single competent authority. They're likely overarching body of the NRM referrals and they make the decisions on whether somebody is deemed A victim of modern slavery, human trafficking. What we found was with some GLA cases it didn't meet the threshold that they were looking at. So sometimes victims would get a negative decision.
And because of the framework that they were looking at and and our case is not meeting that threshold. So now with like Martin's case was a brilliant example there and that would be 1 where it might be touch and go whether it it was deemed as modern slavery job. So we give them an insight into the work that we're doing, the victims that way, say and that's been filtered down to the decision makers now.
And we're also working the UK VI on the exploitation within sponsorships.
M just with Martin saying about some of the indicators and you know that being the commonality of the address or commonality of bank accounts, some of the other indicators that we've come across with our victims is I'm not wearing the right clothing. So we've had a victim turn up to work with sliders on when it's been snowing outside. And luckily the factory area was working here. HR pulled.
Men's spoke to him and asked why? Why are you wearing sliders? It's freezing. And they said they couldn't afford it. And then they started asking questions about how much he was earning when it was getting his money out. And he didn't have a clue how much he was earning. And the sportsman about a bank account. It did not understand what a bank account was. And then they started asking how how are you getting your money out? So just asking those questions sometimes can lead because he really didn't want to.
Admit what was going on. It was quite ashamed and embarrassed of it. And but those questions started opening up and other avenues and building that rapport with that individual.
And and he is just a few quotes that we've had from the syndicates, but also the victims that we have on board and something that really stands out is the second quote, which is it's been extremely useful having you supporting us. I've got so much work on and it's such a relief to know that you have the victims covered. And this is what we get a lot from investigators and police forces that they can just solely concentrate on the investigation.
Then we can just make sure that that victim's looked after.
Thank you. Is there any questions?

Suzanne (Guest)   1:13:30
I've been checking and at the moment I don't see any as such for you. Jessa, what you've told us fit so nicely with everything else we've been hearing this morning. We do have one comment that's come in from Mitch and Ben about what Martin was talking about and suggesting using the payroll system to cheque addresses and landlord address details, which is very helpful. I'll just cheque again to make sure that I'm not missing somebody who wants to. Ohh. I've got a memory Brown saying.
Amazing work which goes along with all the other wonderful quotes that you have here. I'll just cheque one more time. Again. I have to keep clicking on chat. You see again. Karen says great work you do, Jess. Thank you. With an explanation, Mark. So I think they're probably notice noting the work you do and very pleased that you're doing it. And and as you say, the police and the GLA are delighted as well. We've come therefore to be end.

Suzanne (Guest)   1:14:31
Of our webinar today, there will be another one for on the 5th of October, so look out for that if your questions have come in and we haven't answered them, we will look at them and come back to you so it's not as though they will be forgotten but I think we have come.
Nicola and Catherine to the end of the webinar is that the situation?

Nicola Ray   1:14:58
Yes, thank you, Suzanne.

Suzanne (Guest)   1:14:59
Thank you. Well, thank. I would like to thank everyone who's been on the webinar. I hope you found it interesting. I'd like to thank all the speakers. It has been for me a really informative few hours. So thank you very much and I hope to see many of you back on the 5th of October. Thank you. We'll close now. Thank you.