Site unseen: Is the sector still guilty of modern slavery?

A decade has passed since the Modern Slavery Act became law. CN examines how far the industry has – or hasn’t – changed

There is a popular concept in criminology called routine activity theory. It posits that the ideal environment for criminals to offend is when the opportunity and the means are in the same place at the same time. According to anti-slavery charity Unseen, construction sites provide the opportunity and means for gangs exploiting vulnerable people – and they are operating unchecked in plain sight.

The Modern Slavery Act is 10 years old this year. Since 2015, large firms have been required to produce statements on how they are rooting out modern slavery within their businesses. But there is growing evidence that merely complying with the law has done little to stamp out the issue.

“Whether we admit it or not, there are still issues with worker exploitation and modern slavery in the construction industry”

Mark Farmer

Unseen started a helpline for potential victims of modern slavery in 2016, not long after the act was passed. In 2017, its first full year of operation, the charity recorded 82 cases of labour exploitation in the construction industry. By 2022, that number had grown to 141. Last year’s toll was 30 per cent lower, at 98 – but remained above 2017 numbers. Construction ranked fourth among the industries Unseen tracked in 2023, behind the hospitality, service and care sectors.

Lucy Mann, senior business engagement manager at Unseen, has a bleak assessment of the true scale. Mann has carried out 25 site visits over the past year, uncovering two cases. But she estimates the number of victims could run into hundreds.

She tells Construction News: “There’s a real disconnect between ‘office level’ and the people that the rules are in place for.

“Senior people have no idea who’s on site. There are so many different levels of subcontracting, particularly people who come for a few days. No one knows whose responsibility it is to make sure they are okay.”

Mann believes tier one contractors have become better at spotting exploitation on their sites since 2015, but that safeguards get weaker down the supply chain. She mentions one project she visited that had 11 different subcontractors on site. While the main contractor may have to make a modern slavery statement, she points out that there are many more tiers of organisation where people might slip through the cracks. “By the end of [the chain], no one is checking anything,” she says.

What is modern slavery?

Government guidance defines modern slavery as “the recruitment, movement, harbouring, or receiving of people through force, coercion, or other means for the purpose of exploitation”. It became a crime under the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The act requires firms to issue a statement confirming they have taken steps to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not occurring in any of their supply chains or in any part of their own businesses.

However, the act only applies to firms with an annual turnover of £36m or more – excluding the SMEs that make up large parts of the construction supply chain.

According to the National Crime Agency (NCA), the government agency tackling organised crime, Albanian, Vietnamese, Indian and Romanian nationals are the most likely foreign nationals to be exploited. Smuggling gangs are passing illegal migrants into the black economy through organised networks, the NCA says.

So why does exploitation in the construction industry remain stubbornly high? The NCA says there are multiple factors: complex supply chains, a transient workforce, critical worker shortages and changing immigration rules.

“Senior people have no idea who’s on site… No one knows whose responsibility it is to make sure they are okay”

Lucy Mann, Unseen

Kat Davies, modern slavery and human trafficking lead at the NCA, tells CN: “In the commercial construction sector, offenders infiltrate complex supply chains as subcontractors. Offenders may seek to undercut other suppliers, or they may show inconsistent or poor record keeping, or other suspicious business practices.”

According to the NCA, common signs someone is a victim of forced labour include working excessively long hours, not having a contract, receiving deductions from pay and lacking adequate qualifications and training.

Unseen’s Mann explains victims aren’t typically driven in vans from captivity – they most likely have a travel card and arrive on their own.

“Work comes through ‘friends’ – a chat message telling them where to go. Casual work attracts exploiters as it’s a thriving environment. Recruitment tactics include false job offers, blackmail, coercion and physical threats,” she says. “There’s a sliding scale of abuse. Most often it’s not people being physically tied up. Victims would rather be paid a small amount to feed their family than have nothing at all.”

Why is it on the rise?

Complacency among firms is one reason for the increase in cases since 2015, Mann says. “Firms think ‘we’re compliant with the law so we’ve done our bit’. They have to accept that it’s happening and find it.”

Robert Brent, chief executive of workforce management solutions provider MSite, fears future government demand for infrastructure and housing will only increase pressure on the UK labour force, creating a new opportunity for the gangs. Firms must begin “addressing modern slavery and tackling it head-on”, he says.

Identification troubles

Mark Farmer, author of Modernise or Die, a 2016 government-commissioned review into the construction labour market, tells CN: “Whether we admit it or not, there are still issues with worker exploitation and modern slavery in the construction industry.” He mentions a conversation with a training provider, “who is having to prevent attempted fraud in obtaining CSCS [Construction Skills Certification Scheme] cards for non-English speaking workers”.

The provider Farmer referenced, which wished to remain anonymous, revealed to CN it had discovered cases where victims had someone coaching them in online assessments, which it then reported to enforcement agencies.

The CSCS tells CN: “We take fraud extremely seriously and have robust procedures in place to combat fake cards. This includes the development of the CSCS Smart Check app. Site managers should regularly check cards using CSCS Smart Check to ensure they are genuine.”

The Smart Check app can be used on sites to verify cards against CSCS records, although the body adds that CSCS cards should not be used as proof an individual has a right to work in the UK.

A spokesperson says: “It is the responsibility of the employers to ensure all the appropriate right to work checks are carried out. CSCS works closely with the Construction Industry Training Board, HMRC, the NCA, the police, Trading Standards, and other regulatory bodies to tackle and act against those attempting to deceive the industry.”

But the problem goes beyond identity verification. The main issues on site, says Mann, are that co-workers don’t know how to report a problem, see illegal gangmasters as part of industry culture, think the victim is being helped with work, or are scared of the consequences of whistleblowing. “[Construction] firms are very behind other sectors. Agriculture has really done a lot to communicate escalation routes and report to our helpline,” she says.

Mann’s verdict echoes the conclusion of a 2018 CN investigation, which revealed how hard it is for exploited workers to seek help. CN talked to Romanian migrants as they tried to pick up low-paid, often dangerous work on construction’s black market. They spoke of their fears of deportation if they asked for help from the authorities.

What more can be done?

The independent anti-slavery commissioner Eleanor Lyons issued a policy brief last July. It calls for a coordinated response from government and the private sector. “A ‘Fair Work Agency’ modelled on a single enforcement body needs to be created – the inefficiency of the existing fragmented system is heightening risks of modern slavery,” it reads.

Such an agency is currently being debated by Parliament as part of the Employment Rights Bill, proposed by the Labour government in October and currently at the report stage in the House of Commons. In the meantime, Mann urges chief executives to push the issue down from leadership level. “Make it mandatory for all workers to have their identity checked,” she says. “Use the CSCS app to see if the cards are fraudulent. That’s quite a small win but a lot of sites don’t.” Or better still: “Give someone the responsibility to just talk to people. Companies should be doing more to fund this.”

Mann wants firms to rethink how they see site workers. “Companies are currently focused on their material supply chain – in part because they think [slavery] is linked to products made abroad. Right now, it’s about procurement and net zero – not the worker installing it,” she says.

Farmer goes further with a demand for tougher employment rules and action to increase skills levels. “The reality is that we have to better regulate the labour market in terms of employment conditions and also worker competence – as they may often be linked,” he says.

Jo Potts, sustainability director at Balfour Beatty, is co-chair of the Built Environment Against Slavery group. She tells CN: “We know that modern slavery and labour exploitation is particularly prevalent in the construction sector given the length and complexity [of] supply chains.

“As criminals continuously evolve their tactics, we recognise the need to constantly evolve our approach, which requires ongoing vigilance, robust due diligence, and strong collaboration across the entire industry.”

She adds: “Our work to combat modern slavery extends beyond corporate reporting requirements. We take proactive steps to actively drive change by enforcing stringent
pre-qualification criteria, conducting regular audits, and offering extensive training and resources for our supply chain partners.”

In October, a group of tier one firms including Laing O’Rourke, Skanska, Morgan Sindall, Kier and Galliford Try put their names to an Unseen video aimed at raising awareness. What more can the industry do? Reporting to police forces is vital, says the NCA’s Davies: “We need the public and industry’s help to identify and safeguard victims, and bring offenders to justice.”