Fresh produce operators are finally understanding that in working with the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA), they can be more effective at rooting out unscrupulous labour providers and earn credit for their actions.
Fifteen months since the sting on Bomfords rocked the trade, the GLA has reported its 60th licence revocation, following an operation with the full co-operation of Walsh Mushrooms.
GLA chairman Paul Whitehouse, pictured, said: “We didn’t start out expecting to have to revoke a significant number of licences. But we also said that once we got going, we would be quite determined to get at those. This is an area which in the past has had little enforcement, and I don’t think people expected this degree of follow-up activity. It is not that we have changed our tack since Operation Scallion, but that people are starting to get the message: we have always said we will give full credit to any companies helping us.”
In the latest revocation, Gurdip Singh, director of Stonehouse Recruitment Ltd of Oldbury, West Midlands, had attempted to mislead the GLA and failed to co-operate with GLA officers.
But with the help of Walsh Mushrooms Ltd, which was supplied workers by Stonehouse, Singh’s business can no longer operate in GLA-regulated sectors. The authority found Singh had misled GLA officers when he stated the business did not use or own vehicles to take workers to and from work, that no PSV licence was held for a 15-seater minibus - despite having been told it needed one - and that he failed to co-operate with GLA officers and failed to allow them to review key documents.
The GLA also found clear evidence that working time regulations had been breached by Stonehouse. Nor did Singh hold records for 10 of his workers or have confirmation of their identity and right to work in the UK. And there was no evidence to suggest that deductions from workers’ pay and income tax had been paid to the HMRC.
The GLA said that throughout the investigation, Walsh Mushrooms worked closely with the organisation, and provided copies of workers’ timesheets that Stonehouse either could not or would not provide.
“Walsh Mushrooms was at no point under investigation by the GLA and had met the legal responsibility of using a licensed gangmaster,” stressed Whitehouse.
Michael O’Sullivan, md of Walsh Mushrooms, said his firm has safeguarded the future employment of those workers affected by the licence revocation with the option to transfer to its main labour provider.
The GLA expects to announce the outcome of a joint inspection it carried out recently with Tesco.
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