As the Home Office this week launched a campaign to root out illegal working in the construction industry, CIOB chief executive Chris Blythe has argued that the industry is creating the conditions where workers can be employed illegally and exploited as “modern slaves”.
The Home Office has launched Operation Magnify, an initiative to clamp down on businesses in the construction sector that are employing and exploiting illegal migrant workers.
To mark the operation, it held a discussion event with industry representatives, including the CIOB’s Blythe, main contractors in Build UK, the Construction Industry Council, and the CITB, aimed at sourcing ideas on solving the problem.
Blythe welcomed the move to stamp out illegal working in an industry which has a history of employing transient labour, saying: “We welcome the government’s commitment to help tackle illegal working in the construction industry. Migrants without the right to work become vulnerable and, as our industry tells us, are at serious risk of injury, exploitation and human rights abuses.”
Blythe believes that main contractors need to take responsibility for the problem, including pro-actively checking that their supply chains do not exploit illegal workers.
He said: “The industry’s business model must take some of the blame for this exploitation. The global trend towards outsourcing and cut price contracting has made it too convenient for main contractors to duck out of their responsibilities by blaming the subcontractor.
“Contractors who take that line risk reputational damage and are liable to incur significant financial penalties, delays and site shutdowns. The uncertainty amongst clients which stems from reports of modern slavery also risks the image and success of the entire industry. So it is clear that we all have a responsibility to come together and increase transparency at every level of the supply chain if we are to eradicate the exploitation of illegal workers.”
The Home Office initiative forms part of a push to eradicate illegal working in the UK. In the last parliament, the government doubled the maximum civil penalty for non-compliant employers to £20,000 for each illegal worker employed.
But it says it has also simplified the “Right to Work” checks, including by reducing the frequency of checks and the range of documents needed.
If the current Immigration Bill, which is progressing through Parliament, is passed, then it will also be easier to prosecute employers using illegal labour with the maximum prison sentence for doing so increased to five years.
James Brokenshire, immigration minister, who announced the initiative, said: “Illegal working undermines legitimate employers, harms the reputation of the industry, drives down wages and denies employment to hard-working UK citizens and people who are working in the UK legally.
“Employers within the construction industry have a critical role to play in helping to combat this by ensuring they carry out the straightforward ‘Right to Work’ checks on potential employees that prevent illegal working in the UK,” he continued.
Gillian Econopouly, head of policy and research, at the CITB highlighted the negative implications illegal working can have on health and safety measures. “Workers without the correct health and safety qualifications pose a serious safety issue to those on site, and the general public,” she said. “We have found cases where illegal workers have used fake health and safety documents to get on site, and we are working with government to stamp this out in the construction sector.”
Other participants in the round-table discussion included Gary Sullivan, chairman of logistics services and security provider Wilson James, and Simon Parham, director of commercial at contractor Osborne.
Earlier this year the CIOB released a report entitled: Modern Slavery: The Dark Side of Construction, which is intended to highlight the prevalence of human rights abuses in construction.
