Is modern slavery still a problem within construction?

‘Modern’ is not a word many would associate with ‘slavery’ but within the construction industry they unfortunately align. Strategic Partnership Director Martin Ward discusses to what extent modern slavery still affects the industry today.

IIt is estimated that 50 million people are trapped in modern slavery worldwide, with 122,000 of those being in the UK, yet many of us don’t know the basics and others are in denial that it exists by choosing to ignore the warning signs.

Having introduced the Modern Slavery Act in 2015, the UK Government defines modern slavery as anything involving the recruitment, movement, harbouring or receiving of people, by any means, with the intent of exploitation.

In addition to this, Anti-Slavery International specifies that this exploitation occurs for either personal or commercial gain and results in the loss of freedom of the victim.

The impact this has on the construction industry is often misunderstood, which begs the question – is modern slavery still the best tag to support widespread awareness of the issue at hand?

Modern slavery is an umbrella term, under which slavery takes many different forms:

• Human trafficking
• Forced labour
• Debt bondage/bonded labour
• Descent–based slavery
• Child slavery
• Forced and early marriage
• Domestic servitude

Of these, forced labour is the most prevalent in the construction industry, with untrained workers being brought to construction sites and made to take up a trade with little to no experience. Although it is often assumed that such workers are kept in captivity, unlicenced gangmasters will also withhold money or charge out of pocket for tools and necessary clothing required to carry out the work.

Under the Modern Slavery Act (2015), legislation was enacted focusing on prevention of modern slavery, prosecution of offenders and protection of victims. Commercial organisations with a turnover of more than £36m are now required to produce a modern slavery statement on an annual basis. This must detail the steps an organisation has taken to identify, assess, address, and prevent modern slavery and human trafficking in their operations and supply chains. Despite this, it is essential for the advancement of the industry that this does not become a tick box exercise, and rather an effort in finding frameworks and solutions.

Victims of modern slavery are present on the biggest sites, for the biggest projects and the biggest businesses in the game. The supply chains of such companies continue to increase in size and complexity making modern slavery ever harder to spot or allowing it to fall by the wayside all together. With several degrees of separation between the heads of supply chain, who write the modern slavery statements for large organisations, and the site managers, who see evidence of modern slavery every day, it can be hard to determine where the authority lies.

Although the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) and other industry bodies exist to set standards and eradicate major issues such as modern slavery, collaboration is essential to tackle modern slavery. People at every step of the supply chain, and in roles across the industry, have equal responsibility to spark change. One forward-thinking method that can enable collaboration is sharing verified and traceable data. Digital platforms, such as those within our pre-site solution, give organisations access to the right workforce data which provides the insight required to improve industry standards.

As well as the financial penalties involved, the reputational damage to businesses that fail to properly check a worker’s right to work documentation can be severe.

And with the potential risks involved in hiring unqualified workers, who can be a danger to themselves and others, conducting rigorous background checks are essential - but they can be time-consuming.

Our Enhanced Vetting service lets contractors upload all relevant identity and qualification documents to an online portal, allowing for detailed checks before the employment progresses.

A hot topic in construction over recent years has been the growing skills shortage, with less young people than ever pursuing a career in construction through apprenticeships and other avenues. In addition to this, the workforce as a whole is aging, leaving the industry with a lack of skilled workers at contactors disposal. Unfortunately, victims of modern slavery bridge this gap in situations where the priority is to simply get the work done.

One of the primary strategies to address the skills gap is recruiting and training young talent, however contractors also have a responsibility to be aware of the credentials of those already in the workforce. By ensuring that all workers go through the same right to work checks, accreditation checks and inductions across all sites we can create a standardised approach, allowing less room for those trapped in modern slavery to slip through the cracks. Although, up until this point, much of this process has relied on putting pen to paper, digital solutions for pre-site checks are now becoming more common. This promotes worker transparency through identity verification and monitoring.

At MSite, creating frameworks and seamless solutions for issues such as modern slavery is a keen focus. It’s becoming easier and easier to falsify information due to innovations in artificial intelligence, so there has never been a more vital time to take responsibility and action. Other industries don’t experience the problem on the same scale as construction, also proving it’s possible to reduce risk.  

Read more about our workforce management solutions here.