Mike Wilson, Chief Executive of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA), announced on Thursday 17 August that stakeholders supplying workers to the agriculture, horticulture and food/drink processing and packaging sectors will need a licence and was reminding them that they only have 2 weeks to complete their application.
The application deadline for the licence, to make sure they are processed in time, is 1 September 2006.
From 1 October 2006, it will be an offence to operate without a licence. The offence is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment and a fine.
From research, commissioned by Defra, it has been suggested that there are 1,000 Labour Providers supplying 600,000 workers in the UK. However, only 714 have applied for a GLA licence.
This figure suggests that almost 300 businesses may be operating illegally when the new licence law becomes enforceable on 1 October 2006, the consequences of which could be closures, resulting in labour shortages on farms and factories throughout the UK.
Industry experts have commented that the suggested research figures are perhaps underestimated and that potential labour shortages could be even more serious.
Mr. Mike Wilson, Chief Executive of the GLA said:
"It will be illegal to operate as a labour provider in the affected areas without a GLA licence after 1st October. And if insufficient labour providers are licensed by this time, the industry will incur difficulty. The simple solution is for labour providers to get themselves licensed.
"If everybody is licensed in time there will be little effect on the industry except that standards will have risen and exploitation fallen. If labour providers are not licensed, this could lead in the worst case scenario to production and supply problems in the food industry".
Mr. Paul Whitehouse, Chairman of the GLA, said:
"The GLA has the power to stop any unlicensed business supplying labour.
"We will stop them and prosecute them even if it halts production in the processing plant or pack house".
Further information and advice can be accessed from the GLA Website by clicking the following:
Gangmasters Licensing Authority Website
Article by Alexandra Johnston
