The Gangmasters Licensing Authority is a UK agency regulating the supply of workers to the agricultural, horticultural and shellfish industries. Employment agencies working in those fields need to be registered with the authority from 1 October, 2006. The agency is a Non Departmental Public Body which was established on 1 April, 2005 by the Gangmasters (Licensing) Authority Regulations 2005. The primary purpose of the agency is to support the Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004. [1] The GLA scheme was set up to prevent the exploitation of workers, and to improve health and safety standards, in what have often been unregulated areas of employment. It is also concerned with illegal working and debt bondage. [2] Businesses which provide labour in the following sectors need to be licensed:
- agriculture, including horticulture, forestry work, dairy farming, the production of consumable produce (whether for profit or not), the raising of animals that will enter the food chain, and the use of land as grazing, meadow or pasture land
- processing and packaging of products (food and drink) containing an agricultural component, any animal product that will enter the food chain, shellfish/fish products, plants/flowers/bulbs, and pet/animal feed
- gathering shellfish.
Companies who use contractors in these sectors are termed ‘labour users’, and will face prosecution if they use workers or services provided by an unlicensed labour provider, although this provision did not come into effect until 1 December 2006. Four specific offences have been established by the Act:
- Operating without a licence
- Obtaining or possessing a false licence or false documentation which is likely to cause another person to believe that a person acting as a gangmaster is licensed
- Using an unlicensed gangmaster (subject to a reasonable steps/due diligence defence)
- Obstruction of enforcement officers/compliance officers exercising their functions under the Act
Moves to create the Licensing Authority were spearheaded by the Transport & General Workers' Union following the deaths of 23 Chinese cockle pickers in the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster, England on 5 February 2004.
See also
- Temporary Labour Working Group, 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster.
- Paul Chapple Whitehouse, appointed the Chairman of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority in 2005.
