A gangmaster in the heart of England has had his licence revoked by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority.
The gangmaster supplied workers to British Bakeries, Thorntons and leading salad producer Florette had ceased trading with the firm.
Robert Taylor, director of 247 Staff, based in Burton on Trent, had his appeal dismissed after failing seven licensing standards, including three critical failures.
The GLA claims Taylor forced migrant workers to live in run-down and cramped houses, while paying over the odds for the privilege, as a condition of finding them work.
Mark Newton, managing director of Florette UK, told freshinfo: "Florette deplores all such gangmaster practices, and welcomes the actions of the GLA in protecting the industry and its workers.
"Florette's past contact with the named company called 247 Staff involved seven workers out of over 400 on site, and in fact we have ceased trading with this company."
247 Staff, which also supplied labour to British Bakeries and Thorntons, is the 49th gangmaster to have its licence taken away by the GLA, and had a revocation points score of 122, which is four times more than the critical score of 30 needed to revoke a licence.
A statement from 247 reads: "247Staff is the trading name of Interlet Limited, which is a franchisor business with a total of more than 40 franchisees over the UK.
"Quality systems and procedures are central to our business, and in this respect every one of our franchisees is audited, twice a year to ensure adherence to the 247Staff quality standards.
"On an audit of Morantus Limited last Thursday, March 13 2008, we discovered certain unacceptable practices that were being carried out by the company contrary to our franchise agreement. As a result, we immediately terminated the engagement of Robert Taylor, who was the director and closed the franchise of Morantus Limited with immediate effect.
"We then reported our actions that same day to the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) and confirmed that the Morantus franchise had been terminated.
"We also confirmed to the GLA our intentions to takeover all of the staff and temporary workers and the GLA were very happy with all the steps proposed by us."
The statement continues: "The GLA took action today, 20 March to revoke the licence of Morantus Limited, a step with which we wholeheartedly agree. We confirm that the head office of 247Staff has now taken over all the staff and temporary workers of the former franchisee. In this respect, we took
immediate steps to ensure firstly, that all the staff are being properly paid and more specifically, to ensure that no deductions for housing are being
taken from wages. Furthermore we have corrected all other unacceptable practices which had been detected. All staff have been counselled to ensure that any individual issues and concerns have been addressed.
"We have been in discussions with the GLA about this matter and they are entirely happy with the steps we have taken to remedy the problems created by the former franchisee.
"We are pleased that our existing systems had detected and dealt with these issues promptly and before the GLA took action. "We are continuing to work with the GLA to ensure that our systems areas robust as we can make them to ensure that no similar problems occur in the future."
GLA chairman Paul Whitehouse said: “I am determined to take action to stop the worker action abuse that has infested the flexible labour market. Any group of workers who are dependent on consumer demand for a weekly job should at least expect to receive the minimum wage and the protection of UK law.
“The GLA is cracking down on illegal work practices to protect workers from the abuse of rogue gangmasters."
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