2017 UK Annual Report on Modern Slavery
PublicationsThis Annual Report focuses on the steps the UK Government, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive have taken in 2017 to combat modern slavery, including human trafficking.
This working paper, based on participatory research carried out with cleaners in the UK, highlights key workplace issues in the cleaning sector, and the risk and resilience factors that impact cleaners’ vulnerability to labour abuse and exploitation. It finds that cleaning is a high-risk sector for labour abuse and exploitation, with workers experiencing frequent issues with pay, inability to take time off when ill, and dangerous working conditions, including high levels of sexual harassment – a key form of gender-based violence. It also identifies systemic and structural issues that create risk of labour exploitation, including the fissured nature of the sector, the low presence of union representation, barriers affecting marginalised workers, and the impact of limited labour market enforcement, among others.
This paper provides an important addition to the existing literature on working conditions in the UK cleaning sector through its unique methodology, which involves workers in every stage of the research process, from design to data collection and analysis. This feminist participatory action research approach has enabled workers to shape the research findings and recommendations, including workers who are at high-risk of exploitation but less frequently represented in policy research, such as undocumented migrants, people who do not speak English and/or work long and unsociable hours. By involving workers from some of the most at-risk groups, this report brings the voices of people with lived experience to the forefront and includes their perspectives in the policymaking process. This work is part of an ongoing three-year research project which seeks to address the knowledge gap concerning experiences and drivers of labour abuse and exploitation in understudied low-paid sectors of the economy. More specifically, the study looks into the working conditions of women and young migrant workers with European Economic Area passports in three low-paid and often precarious sectors – cleaning, hospitality, and app-based courier and logistics work in the gig economy.
This Annual Report focuses on the steps the UK Government, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive have taken in 2017 to combat modern slavery, including human trafficking.
This review has drawn upon findings from evaluations and research that has been carried out by academics and by government departments. It has identified that in some cases, there is an absence of an independent, published evaluation. To understand ...Read More
This paper explores the question of what traceability systems mean for the labour situation of fish- workers; for whom and in what respects is traceability effective, and what impact do these systems have? The limited social criteria in fi...Read More
This brief has been prepared by the Issara Institute and Anders Lisborg, technical consultant. The paper provides a brief landscape analysis of mainstream trafficking victim assistance programs in Southeast Asia from the lens of empowerment, emph...Read More