Push to improve conditions

A "groundbreaking" new worker-driven initiative aims to improve working conditions in the UK fishing industry following the exposure of widespread migrant labour abuse and exploitation at sea.

The Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX) policy and research organisation is working with the International Transport Workers' federation and the coalition of Immokalee workers human rights organisation, beginning with a two-year pilot programme in Scotland that launched in December 2023.

FLEX says serious concerns about working conditions and worker exploitation "blight the UK fishing industry". These include pay inequalities, excessive working hours, physical violence, labour abuses and exploitative immigration schemes.

A particular problem it highlights is the seafarer's "transit-visa" loophole. This is "overly relied upon by the domestic fishing industry as a means of hiring migrant workers at low cost but denies these workers the protection of UK employment laws".

The new initiative is based on a worker-driven social responsibility (WSR) model for tackling labour abuse and exploitation in corporate supply chains.

It addresses the power imbalances between workers and employers, and buyers and suppliers, that drive many of the abuses at the base of global supply chains.

"WSR involves a group of workers jointly establishing, monitoring, and enforcing their own rights," FLEX explains.

"This is backed by legally-binding agreements between the workers and the companies at the top of supply chains that harness the purchasing power of those companies, to incentivise rights compliance".