The Modern Slavery Act 2015 came into force last year to ensure supply chains are free of slavery and to prevent exploitation and trafficking of workers. It created three new offences:
- holding people in slavery or servitude or requiring them to perform forced or compulsory labour;
- the arranging or facilitating of human trafficking, being arranging the travel of people with a view to exploiting them; and
- committing an offence with the intention of human trafficking, including aiding and abetting.
January 2016 saw the first reported conviction of a UK based business owner for such an offence. The owner of bed-making business Kozee Sleep was convicted of conspiracy to traffic and sentenced to 27 months in prison. He had been supplied with trafficked workers who were kept in squalid conditions and made to work long hours for less than £2.00 per day. It was found that he had employed these workers knowingly and was complicit in their exploitation.
More recently, a UK company has been found civilly liable to victims of human trafficking and ordered to pay compensation.
The case involved six Lithuanian men who had been trafficked to work in the UK, who brought a claim against their employers, DJ Houghton Chicken Catching Services Ltd. The company was involved in producing premium free range eggs for a number of large companies, including McDonalds, Tesco, Asda and Marks & Spencer. In 2012, police raided houses controlled by the company and freed suspected victims of human trafficking. No criminal proceedings were brought, but six of the men brought a civil claim on the basis that they had been severely exploited.
During the case, the men described living and working in inhuman and degrading conditions, including living in dirty accommodation, working back to back shifts with no sleep or toilet breaks and being abused by supervisors. The court ruled that the workers were owed compensation for:
- Failure to pay the agricultural minimum wage.
- Charging of prohibited work-finding fees.
- Unlawfully withholding wages.
- Depriving the workers of facilities to wash, rest, eat and drink.
The level of compensation has not yet been decided but it is expected to run into hundreds of thousands of pounds. The employees are also bringing a further claim for personal injury due to the physical and mental damage caused by their exploitation.
These cases highlight that those involved in human trafficking and exploitation of workers could face not only prosecution and the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence, but also severe financial consequences. It is to be hoped that they act as a disincentive to those involved in such acts.
However, they also highlight the importance for businesses of ensuring that its supply chains are free of modern slavery, exploitation and human trafficking. The Modern Slavery Act requires commercial organisations which provide goods or services and have an annual turnover greater than £36 million to publish a statement each year disclosing what steps have been taken to ensure that no slavery or human trafficking is taking place in its business or supply chains. In these cases the eggs produced by DJ Houghton were eventually sold in well-known supermarkets and Kozee Sleep supplied British high street retailers. This illustrates that while a business may in itself appear to be compliant, there may be unacceptable practices occurring in other companies down the supply chain which are not known about. It could be damaging for large businesses if they are seen to be stocking products which have been produced unethically. Businesses to whom these rules apply will have to be aware of the policies and procedures they have in place to ensure that no exploitation is occurring.
