Unions threaten to boycott gangmaster authority

The GMB general union has warned that trade unions will give up their places on the new Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) if the government waters down the gangmaster licensing regime.

The GLA was established in April this year to administer the Gangmasters Licensing Scheme and includes representatives of employers and unions. A second stage of public consultation on the scope of the scheme ends this month.

But the GMB said recently that it had a "major concern" over the licensing regime. It pointed out that the GLA board and government ministers had earlier agreed that every labour provider applying for a licence would be inspected, and that inspection would include anonymous discussions with workers.

But the union says that work and pensions minister John Hutton and the government's Better Regulation Executive "have intervened to say that only 15% of all applicants will be inspected before licenses are issued".

The GMB also claims that: "Other labour providers will only be inspected if they have previously broken the law."

GMB national organiser and GLA member Martin Smith said: "If this goes through it is fair to say that it is a show stopper for the GMB."

And he said the trade union side on the authority "is unanimous that we will withdraw from the process. We will not be complicit with a process that simply intends to use us to license exploitation."