GLA to contact Channel 4 over worker exploitation shown in Benefits Street
14 January 2014
Following questions by Recruiter, the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) plans to contact Channel 4 over exploitation of migrant agricultural workers shown in yesterday’s Benefit Street episode (pictured).
Tue, 14 Jan 2014 | By Christopher GoodfellowFollowing questions by Recruiter, the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) plans to contact Channel 4 over exploitation of migrant agricultural workers shown in yesterday’s Benefit Street episode (pictured).
In the programme, which aired last night (13 January 2014) on Channel 4, Romanian migrant workers call the police to report their boss for bringing them to the country as slave labour.
“We’re being forced to work for nothing. The boss is keeping our wages to pay for our ‘contracts’,” says Marius, one of the workers living on the street, adding their employer kept the group’s passports.
A GLA spokesperson tells recruiter.co.uk: “We will now seek to contact the programme’s producers to see if they can provide us with any details about the gangmasters involved. Though all cases of workers being mistreated in this way are distressing, this latest example is not a surprise. The scenario of migrant workers being promised a better life by working for a gangmasters on farms in the UK but then finding they are paid far less then they have been promised – less than the minimum wage – is not uncommon.”
Soon after the meeting with the police Marius and several other workers are seen leaving the street fearing retaliation from their boss.
The programme can be viewed on Channel 4's on-demand service.
In the programme, which aired last night (13 January 2014) on Channel 4, Romanian migrant workers call the police to report their boss for bringing them to the country as slave labour.
“We’re being forced to work for nothing. The boss is keeping our wages to pay for our ‘contracts’,” says Marius, one of the workers living on the street, adding their employer kept the group’s passports.
A GLA spokesperson tells recruiter.co.uk: “We will now seek to contact the programme’s producers to see if they can provide us with any details about the gangmasters involved. Though all cases of workers being mistreated in this way are distressing, this latest example is not a surprise. The scenario of migrant workers being promised a better life by working for a gangmasters on farms in the UK but then finding they are paid far less then they have been promised – less than the minimum wage – is not uncommon.”
Soon after the meeting with the police Marius and several other workers are seen leaving the street fearing retaliation from their boss.
The programme can be viewed on Channel 4's on-demand service.
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