A government proposal to water down the Gangmasters (licencing) Act to exclude food processors and packers has caused outrage in the food industry.

Ministers have until mid-January to decide whether or not to include secondary food processing in the legislation.

Dan Rees, chair of the Temporary Labour Working Group and Director of the Ethical Trading Initiative, said: “The entire food industry is alarmed that the Government is considering excluding the great majority of food processing and packing from the Gangmasters (Licensing) Act. The Act was agreed with full cross party support in both Houses under assurances from ministers that any room for exclusions and loopholes would be kept to an absolute minimum. Now, at the 11th hour, we face a real danger that the largest and fastest growing sector of the industry - secondary food processing - will be excluded from the Act. This will create huge loopholes and allow unscrupulous operators to continue to exploit vulnerable workers.”

Ministers currently have four options; the exclusion of second stage processing, the exclusions of second stage processing but with redefined definition of the term, exclusion of off-farm facilities, or option four - no exclusions for processing an packaging of food and agricultural products.

Decisions one to three could result in 150,000 temporary workers falling outside of the Act’s scope.

With consistency across the whole sector, Rees said the industry would benefit from clear rules about who was obligated by the act: “The most important thing is that option four [no exclusions] will create a level playing field. It gives an unequivocal guidance that all labour providers will need a licence in which to operate.”

An act with no exclusions would also remove the need for costly guidelines implemented by retailers: “What’s happened before is each retailer puts a different demand on pack houses and they get this auditing fatigue. It creates duplication and cost instead of one system that does it all,” Rees said.

The Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) plans to ‘switch on’ licensing from April 1, 2006.

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