There are now just two weeks to go before labour providers to the agricultural and horticultural sectors, as well as food processing and packaging, must have applied for a licence granted by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA).
The deadline for applications is September 1. From October 1 it will be an offence to operate without a licence that will be punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment.
The GLA started licensing UK operations on April 6.
Defra research shows there are 1,000 labour providers supplying 600,000 workers in the UK. But only 714 have applied for a GLA licence.
Therefore, it follows that almost 300 businesses could be shut down by the GLA from October 1, which could lead to labour shortages across the UK.
Mike Wilson, GLA chief executive, said: “The simple solution is for labour providers to get themselves licensed.
“It 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.”
Paul Whitehouse, chairman of the GLA, added: “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 packhouse.”
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