Partnership bulletin May 2024
REGULATION
Introducing National Investigations Manager Paul Williams
Paul Williams is one of four National Investigations Managers within the GLAA. As part of his role he is responsible for high risk non-compliant Labour Providers, including unlicensed activity, in the regulated sector.
As Paul explains, the GLAA has adopted a new working model working more closely with our labour providers and users. This new model allows the GLAA to take a more pro-active approach in the regulated sector.
Below is a summary of the new process:
The GLAA Licensing team receive applications from businesses and individuals intending to trade in the GLAA regulated sector. The team will continue to carry out checks with other government departments and enforcement partners to ensure that all applicants are ‘fit and proper’ to hold a GLAA licence. After the GLAA has considered and assessed an application for a licence, most applicants will reach the standard and will be granted a licence. Other applicants may have a licence granted with additional licence conditions (ALCs) to deal with specific issues and some applicants will be refused a licence as they do not meet the required standards.
Paul says the GLAA has a risk-based compliance process managed by the National Investigations Teams. During the course of a licensable period, the holder should expect an inspection by the GLAA to test compliance with the Licensing Standards. This inspection can be announced or unannounced and will include engagement with workers.
He goes on to say that depending on the results of that inspection, the Licensing team may review the status of the licence, which could include revocation of a licence for critical failures of the licensing standards.
Paul adds that in 2024 the GLAA will be increasing the number of announced and unannounced Compliance Inspections and engagement to encourage good practice, provide help and advice around minor breaches of licence conditions, and deal robustly with any criminal or serious breaches.
Paul encourages all Labour Users and Labour Providers to report any bad practice or unlicensed activity to the GLAA. Call us on 0800 432 0804, email contact@gla.gov.uk or use our online report form.
Are you applying for a GLAA Licence?
If you are applying for a GLAA licence then make sure you read the guidance on applying for a licence which provides details of all the information you will need when completing the application form.Do you use Umbrella companies?
An umbrella company is a business often used by recruitment agencies to pay temporary workers.
In most cases, they employ workers and pay their wages through PAYE. Umbrella companies generally employ contractors who work on short-term assignments. They act as intermediaries between a contractor and their ‘end client’ or agency.
Many umbrella companies are compliant with the tax rules but some use tax avoidance schemes. The labour market enforcement bodies work together where potential fraud or other offences are identified to ensure compliance with UK law.
HMRC has updated its guidance on how to protect your employment business and the workers you supply from non-compliant businesses in your supply chain.
GLAA Brief 67 provides information on mini umbrella companies and how using these models may affect your GLAA licence.
Keep an eye out for details of our next joint webinar with HMRC's National Minimum Wage team and the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate on 18th and 20th June which will cover umbrella companies.
Minimum charge rate guidance April 2024
Brief 83 publishes the latest guidance on indicative minimum charge rates between labour providers and labour users, effective from 1 April 2024.
Use of the GLAA logo by licence holders
Please remember, the GLAA's logo is issued by the government and features the Home Office crest and is subject to Crown copyright. So unfortunately, we are unable to authorise its use by licence holders.
Those licence holders who have added the GLAA's logo to their websites are asked to remove the image and instead add a line stating ‘Licensed by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, unique reference number …….’ or ‘GLAA licensed: …..’.
Thank you for your understanding.
Join our next Labour User/Labour Provider meeting on 24 September 2024
The GLAA will be holding its next Labour User/Labour Provider meeting on 24 September 2024 and invitations will be sent out nearer the time.
Once a quarter, we invite partners to hear the latest labour market trends and developments and what the GLAA is doing to tackle non-compliance through its enforcement and regulatory activities.
The invite is open to anyone who would like to hear more about best practice in the regulated sector.
You could be a GLAA licence holder, supplying workers within our regulated sector. Or, you might be one of their clients – a labour user - who employs workers as part of your day-to-day business operations.
We also welcome those from connected trade associations and retailers as well as anyone else within the UK’s fresh produce supply chain.
If you are interested in joining future meetings, simply email us at communications@gla.gov.uk.
Our CEO Elysia McCaffrey is speaking at an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) event on Modernising Employment on 10 June at the Palace of Westminster.
Worker exploitation continues to grow in the UK with well publicised recent issues in the gig economy, the care sector, employment scams, immigration abuses amongst a range of other issues. This in person session of the Modernising Employment APPG chaired by Simon Fell MP (the Prime Minister’s Anti-Fraud Champion) will explore a range of worker exploitation topics and how they can be tackled by industry, government, and wider society.
Hear from a range of experts, civil servants, industry bodies on how worker exploitation is currently facilitated in the UK and how it can be prevented. Addressing issues right across the hiring journey starting with online job platforms that enable fake or misleading jobs, through supply chain issues including intermediaries and recruitment agencies, and into the challenges that relate to sectors such as the gig economy, permanent and insecure work.
Join Elysia McCaffery, the Chief Executive of the Gangmasters & Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), as we explore innovative solutions such as Worker Voice, the world’s first Online Recruitment Scheme, and many others designed to tackle worker exploitation in the UK.
Register your interest and find out more about this event by clicking the following link: How HR can stop the Worker Exploitation Crisis Tickets, Mon, Jun 10, 2024 at 5:00 PM | Eventbrite.
NEWS
Unlicensed gangmaster in Northern Ireland fined
A man who illegally supplied workers to a food manufacturing company in Ballymena, Northern Ireland has been fined.
Catalin Andrei Tabacaru, 40, of Ballymena in County Antrim, initially pleaded not guilty to the charge of acting as an unlicensed gangmaster at Antrim Crown Court but after a further court appearance in November 2023 he changed his plea to one of guilty.
He appeared at the same court on 23 January 2024 where he was fined £8,000.
Following reports made to the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) in September 2021 enquiries revealed that a number of Romanian workers were being brought in to work in the food processing sector. Further enquiries found that Tabacaru, the owner of Andy’s Recruitment Agency, had been supplying workers without a GLAA licence.
Tabacaru told the company that he held a GLAA licence and began supplying workers in the full knowledge that he required a licence to do so.
GLAA Senior Enforcement Investigator Mark Arlow said “Anyone supplying workers into the GLAA regulated sectors of agriculture, horticulture, shellfish gathering and associated processing and packaging must have a GLAA licence.
“We are committed to taking action against unlicensed gangmasters who ignore our regulations. We would also remind labour users to ensure they do their due diligence before entering into arrangements with unlicensed gangmasters and falling the wrong side of the law”.
Acting as a gangmaster without a GLAA licence is a criminal offence carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and an unlimited fine.
It is also an offence to use labour provided by unlicensed gangmasters. This offence carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison and a fine. You can check if a labour provider has a GLAA licence via our public register.
Romanian man sentenced for modern slavery offences
A Romanian man who exploited a vulnerable worker by bringing him to the UK and controlling his wages has been sentenced at Bolton Crown Court.
Nelu Nechita, 53, pleaded guilty to an offence under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 of “arranging or facilitating the travel of another person with a view to exploitation” when he appeared before Bolton Crown Court in May 2023.
When he appeared before the same court on 19 February he was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months. The judge also imposed 200 hours of Community Service, a 20 day Rehabilitation Order and a 5 year Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Order.
Nechita was arrested by officers from the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) during an operation with Greater Manchester Police and the Department for Work and Pensions in February 2019.
Enquiries by the GLAA found that Nechita had offered to find work for the victim in the UK and paid for his travel from Romania.
Along with the victim and a number of other workers, Nechita found employment at a chicken processing factory in North Wales. Nechita transported the victim and other workers to the factory from his home address in Oldham.
Nechita controlled the victim's payment card and PIN number. He would regularly use the card to take cash out of the victim’s bank account, at ATMs across Oldham. The victim had no access to his wages and received just £280 from Nechita for six weeks of work at the factory.
Throughout the case the victim, a Romanian man in his 40's has been supported by the GLAA.
GLAA Senior Enforcement Investigator Mike Heyes said “this type of exploitation is all too common. Exploiters trick vulnerable workers into coming to the UK with the promise of a good job and better life. The reality is that they end up becoming trapped in a cycle of debt, unable to escape.
“At the GLAA our primary aim is to stop worker exploitation. If you have any information about workers being exploited, please get in touch and report your concerns."
Man sentenced in Northern Ireland for gangmaster offences
A Lithuanian man has been convicted of gangmaster offences in Northern Ireland following investigations carried out by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA).
Aurimas Andrijauskas, 42, of Knocknagoney Heights, Newry was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment suspended for 3 years for acting as an unlicensed gangmaster when he appeared before Newry Crown Court today (Friday 8 March).
GLAA officers investigated after the Government department DAERA and members of the public reported sightings of shellfish gathering.
Andrijauskas was found to have been illegally gathering and processing shellfish along the coastlines of Northern Ireland and Scotland without having a GLAA licence between January 2019 and March 2022.
Andrijauskas was previously convicted of a similar offence in 2018 of acting as a gangmaster without a licence between October 2016 and May 2017.
Welcoming the sentencing, Yvonne Barwani, Senior Financial Investigator with the National Food Crime Unit (NFCU), Food Standards Agency, the allocated Financial Investigator under a joint working agreement with GLAA, said:
“The financial work I conducted estimated that this individual had made around £250,000 from his offending. The offending involved illegal shellfish harvesting which is one of our NFCU control strategy priorities.
At NFCU we are committed to tackling food crime in all it’s different forms and we will continue to work with partners to protect consumers interests in relation to food.”
A GLAA Senior Enforcement Investigator said “This successful prosecution demonstrates our continued commitment to ensure that those who break the law within our regulated sectors are brought to justice.
“This case should act as a lesson to all illegal gangmasters in the shellfish industry that we will find out and we will prosecute.”
It is a criminal offence to provide labour in the shellfish sector without a GLAA licence. The maximum penalty is 10 years in prison and a fine.
It is also an offence to use labour provided by unlicensed labour providers. This offence carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison and a fine. You can check if a labour provider has a GLAA licence via our public register.
Anyone with information about unlicensed gangmasters operating in the regulated sectors should contact the GLAA by emailing contact@gla.gov.uk or by using the online reporting form.
CONTACT US
You can report your concerns to the GLAA by email at contact@gla.gov.uk or by using the online reporting form.
Alternatively, call the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
Thank you for taking the time to read our bulletin. If you'd like to contribute content about your work in preventing/identifying labour abuse, you can email communications@gla.gov.uk.