The government’s proposed new director of labour market enforcement will play a “critical” role in the widening of licensing to sectors not currently covered by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA).

The proposed role has been made by government in its response to consultation on tackling exploitation in the labour market, published this morning. 

The consultation covered widening the remit to any sectors not currently covered, strengthening the powers and changing the name of the GLA, as well as establishing a director of labour market enforcement to set priorities for enforcement bodies and introducing a new offence of aggravated breach of labour market legislation.

Sectors currently requiring GLA licences and regulation include agriculture, horticulture, shellfish gathering, and fresh food processing and packaging.

The document reveals government will legislate to reform the current licensing regime to ensure it is flexible enough to respond to changing risks in existing or new labour sectors, if the evidence supports its use. 

It adds the director of labour market enforcement will be given a “critical” role in recommending changes to the licensing regime to the secretaries of state, as part of their overall strategy to tackle exploitation. 

The government says it believes the use of this approach would provide a “balanced, proportionate” approach to the use of licensing. 

But Tom Hadley, director of policy at the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC), said in a statement government needs to undertake further work rather than press ahead with any formal expansion of licensing to sectors outside of the GLA’s remit. 

“It is not at all clear that it is the licensing process itself that drives out criminal activity, as is evident from the number of GLA licence revocations and enforcement action taken against existing licence holders,” Hadley said.

Meanwhile Simon Rice Birchall, partner at employment law firm Eversheds told Recruiter the government would need a weight of evidence to justify the extension of the GLA’s remit.

“You would need to have proof of abuse and it would need to be relatively widespread,” Birchall said. “An employer in East Anglia abusing and exploiting people would not be sufficient. You would have to have evidence that the regime is not working in its current form.”

GLA chief executive Paul Broadbent said in a statement: “Through our work across the past decade we have established a solid reputation – at home and overseas – for our work in safeguarding workers and identifying and tackling unscrupulous individuals who seek to profit by the exploitation of others. 

“If agreed, these new proposals would give us the opportunity to build on those firm foundations by providing the GLA with additional powers, enabling us to focus more closely on the worst examples of labour abuse in the UK.”

But for Glenn Hayes, employment solicitor at law firm Irwin Mitchell, the government will need to properly define the job description for its new director of labour market enforcement.

“The role needs to be properly defined. They are clearly going to use it as a means of linking up all the various types of enforcement agencies that there are already. It [the role] will have to be long term.”

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