Slaves working in UK construction and car washes, report finds

[Saving For a Space Ship]

Slaves working in UK construction and car washes, report finds  

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/08/slaves-working-in-uk-construction-and-car-washes-report-finds

Quote

...In the agriculture sector, the GLAA found evidence of 15-hour days, sometimes seven days a week, with double shifts without proper breaks, illegally low pay, serious safety incidents going unreported, and very poor living conditions. Romanian and Bulgarian workers were currently most at risk in this sector. Criminal groups were reported to be trafficking foreign workers into the food processing sector, with licensed companies warning they were being undercut by unlicensed ones.

Wages in food service, hotels and catering could be as low as £10 per shift, with some employees working up to 15 hours a day, and sleeping on floors. In car washes, the GLAA found trafficking, 12-hour shifts seven days a week, wages below the legal minimum, dangerous accommodation on site, and exploitation of undocumented workers. Romanians made up the largest number of victims.

One-third of UK garment manufacturing is based in Leicester but up to 75% of workers in the city’s textile factories are said to be paid less than the legal minimum wage. The report says in some places more than half the workforce is made up of undocumented workers mainly doing night shifts. Victims of exploitation in this sector are predominantly Pakistani and Romanian....

 

 

[Sugarlips]

What do they propose we do, build a wall? Go cashless? Deportation? 

[ccc]

1 hour ago, Sugarlips said:

What do they propose we do, build a wall? Go cashless? Deportation? 

Whilst you will always get dodgy people doing dodgy things - Freedom of movement has made it incredibly easy. Once that ends you wont be able to drive a bus load of Romanians into the UK with no questions asked.

[AdamoMucci]

I know of cash in hand workers at a car wash in a Tesco car park. I bet that is happening all over. Super markets will claim ignorance of course and blame the shady "company" they gave the concession to.

[Maynardgravy]

1 hour ago, ccc said:

Whilst you will always get dodgy people doing dodgy things - Freedom of movement has made it incredibly easy. Once that ends you wont be able to drive a bus load of Romanians into the UK with no questions asked.

but who's letting in the busloads of Pakistanis, no questions asked?

[ccc]

4 minutes ago, Maynardgravy said:

but who's letting in the busloads of Pakistanis, no questions asked?

That's a good question. Apparently we have a massive shortage of private hire taxi drivers in this country.

In barely 5 years Edinburgh has gone from nearly all private hire drivers being locals - to nearly all of them being from the middle east.

Immigration figures back this all up to. More immigration from outside the EU than inside.

Who knows what those in charge are thinking.

[newbonic]

The car wash thing is an interesting example of how automation is going backwards due to our barely controlled volume of immigration. The number of automatic car washes has halved in the last 15 years as dirt cheap imported sponge wielding labour makes them uneconomical.

It enables some businesses to work stupid instead of smart, and no doubt game the working tax credits system or carry out  cash in hand fiddles, etc.

[PopGun]

31 minutes ago, newbonic said:

The car wash thing is an interesting example of how automation is going backwards due to our barely controlled volume of immigration. The number of automatic car washes has halved in the last 15 years as dirt cheap imported sponge wielding labour makes them uneconomical.

It enables some businesses to work stupid instead of smart, and no doubt game the working tax credits system or carry out  cash in hand fiddles, etc.

Indeed, in the short term at least. Strange how it's claimed welfare is blamed to attract these people to UK, then end up working off grid...

[macca13]

41 minutes ago, newbonic said:

The car wash thing is an interesting example of how automation is going backwards due to our barely controlled volume of immigration. The number of automatic car washes has halved in the last 15 years as dirt cheap imported sponge wielding labour makes them uneconomical.

It enables some businesses to work stupid instead of smart, and no doubt game the working tax credits system or carry out  cash in hand fiddles, etc.

I have long said this rubbish about how we desperately need more migrants is a lie.. How can London be a prosperous city when all over we have people working on tiny wages being topped up with housing benefit and working tax credit..

How can we become a thriving economic powerhouse when we are importing some of the most stupid vile people in the world.. working in construction footprints on toilet seats and poo on the wall and floor is normal for me now.. As for our lack of builders the people I see turn up with no skills from all over the world, live in slum houses with 15 other people, then learn on the job.. They are not skilled builders.. that’s a massive lie.. They just start on tiny labourers wages living like animals and learn off each other.. to the detriment of our own young who are denied the opportunity to learn these skills.. 

I watched a program about a farm that had been automated.. cost a few £ but now is more efficient than ever.. 

Cheap migrant Labour is a short term plug for a very big financial hole.. when these people who pay very little/no  tax retire all our public services collapse bankrupt..

Edited May 8, 2018 by macca13

[Sugarlips]

Glad to see everyone telling it like it is. Govt conveniently forget that migrants also grow old like all of us and become even more of a financial burden. They will do anything to keep the ratwheel economy greased short term.

[Maximus Skepticus]

4.4% unemployment...whats the problem..........except we all know what happens next, don't we?

[azal777]

3 hours ago, AdamoMucci said:

I know of cash in hand workers at a car wash in a Tesco car park. I bet that is happening all over. Super markets will claim ignorance of course and blame the shady "company" they gave the concession to.

Ahh, not necessarily so.

our local Sainsbury’s had to kick the contractors off site that had held the deal for a number of years. Word was from some friends involved in the case that there were some ‘issues’ rega ding staff.

two months later and a new contract and gang, this time primarily Albanians. Things appeared smooth up until recently and suddenly, they have gone too. I don’t yet know why but can guess.

are my local Sainsbury’s incompetent? Are the contract winners trying their Luck?

either way not a great endorsement for Sainsbury’s, or, the car washing industry so now blighted with migrant labour.

[Ah-so]

6 hours ago, newbonic said:

The car wash thing is an interesting example of how automation is going backwards due to our barely controlled volume of immigration. The number of automatic car washes has halved in the last 15 years as dirt cheap imported sponge wielding labour makes them uneconomical.

It enables some businesses to work stupid instead of smart, and no doubt game the working tax credits system or carry out  cash in hand fiddles, etc.

When economists consider the UK's 'productivity puzzle' you never read about this. The fact is that an endless supply of cheap labour reduces the need to innovate and in some cases can drive it backwards. 

[spyguy]

2 hours ago, Ah-so said:

When economists consider the UK's 'productivity puzzle' you never read about this. The fact is that an endless supply of cheap labour reduces the need to innovate and in some cases can drive it backwards. 

It maybe be endless. its not cheap.

Each car washer will pulling in 20k in tax subs.

 

[Big Orange]

1 hour ago, spyguy said:

It maybe be endless. its not cheap.

Each car washer will pulling in 20k in tax subs.

 

Cheap for capitalists and companies in the short term, but costly in the long run for the State and nation. 

I can now understand now how complex systems undo themselves and civil wars break out.

[dropbear]

I don’t think there should be a minimum wage. Let people charge as much or as little as they want for their labour. If we have a glut of taxi drivers, then the rates will naturally come down and people might think twice before skilling up as a taxi driver.

Similarly, If there are people who want their car paint scratched up by these cheap car washers then who are we to stop them?

[winkie]

18 hours ago, Sugarlips said:

Glad to see everyone telling it like it is. Govt conveniently forget that migrants also grow old like all of us and become even more of a financial burden. They will do anything to keep the ratwheel economy greased short term.

Not only old.....anyone who is being treated as a slave, has poor life and working conditions, will have greater physical and mental problems because of it...... society as a whole in the end pays for the ills and greed of others who gain......?

[Andy T]

35 minutes ago, dropbear said:

Similarly, If there are people who want their car paint scratched up by these cheap car washers

Amazes me sometimes how people that spend 40k or whatever on a new car with shiny and lets face it quite delicate paintwork, then hand it over to a random bunch of people that spray acid on the wheels then use the same sponge to wash the wheels and the sides of the car at the same time. Then I suppose it highlights that cars have become a disposable item and are not really looked after.  People pay £15-20 for the privilege and form long queues for it on a sunny Saturday morning, Baaaa!

 

 

[ccc]

1 hour ago, dropbear said:

I don’t think there should be a minimum wage. Let people charge as much or as little as they want for their labour. If we have a glut of taxi drivers, then the rates will naturally come down and people might think twice before skilling up as a taxi driver.

Similarly, If there are people who want their car paint scratched up by these cheap car washers then who are we to stop them?

They are not cheap. That's the entire point.

[hotblack42]

I'm sorry but some of those E European teams do a really good job.  Is it OK to use a good hand wash where they look happy enough to be there, or are we saying blanket boycott?

Its a great start to the weekend to have a car that's been carefully cleaned, polished and vacuumed while at work on Friday.
Can we get a bunch of Brits to do this for £25? £35?..

For a time a few years back I spent hours every fortnight washing and polishing a black SLK, jacking it up to get inside the alloys, removing the plates etc.  Not doing that again, time is just too precious.  End result looked amazing though.

[ccc]

5 minutes ago, hotblack42 said:

I'm sorry but some of those E European teams do a really good job.  Is it OK to use a good hand wash where they look happy enough to be there, or are we saying blanket boycott?

Its a great start to the weekend to have a car that's been carefully cleaned, polished and vacuumed while at work on Friday.
Can we get a bunch of Brits to do this for £25? £35?..

For a time a few years back I spent hours every fortnight washing and polishing a black SLK, jacking it up to get inside the alloys, removing the plates etc.  Not doing that again, time is just too precious.  End result looked amazing though.

As others have explained and its been mentioned on numerous other threads - these people aren't actually cheap when you look at the benefit costs sitting behind them. And the many close links to organised crime that have been found as well.

Take the benefits away and most wouldn't exist. Well apart from the money laundering ones.

I suppose a good comparison would be to countries that aren't stupid enough to have a non contributory benefits system. Do they have all these similar car washes popping up everywhere ?

Aside from the properly dodgy ones - I doubt it. Not worth the hassle. Without the benefits the money isn't good enough.

[goldbug9999]

 

20 minutes ago, ccc said:

As others have explained and its been mentioned on numerous other threads - these people aren't actually cheap when you look at the benefit costs sitting behind them.

Yes its an example of cost externalistion, they seem cheap until you consider the total lifetime social and economic burden.

Edited May 9, 2018 by goldbug9999

[ccc]

4 minutes ago, goldbug9999 said:

 

Yes it about cost externalisation, they seem cheap until you consider the total lifetime social and economic burden.

But they don't have a wife, have no kids and don't get older and never get sick and also never use the NHS. They also don't use the UK infrastructure at all.

 

 

Actually......

[longgone]

1 hour ago, Andy T said:

Amazes me sometimes how people that spend 40k or whatever on a new car with shiny and lets face it quite delicate paintwork, then hand it over to a random bunch of people that spray acid on the wheels then use the same sponge to wash the wheels and the sides of the car at the same time. Then I suppose it highlights that cars have become a disposable item and are not really looked after.  People pay £15-20 for the privilege and form long queues for it on a sunny Saturday morning, Baaaa!

 

 

you forgot dropping the sponge on the floor to pick up some lovely grit and sand.

[dropbear]

This report talks about slavery - I think it's separate from the benefits scroungers we know and love.

That is, people who speak no English are trucked over from Romanian villages by their business savvy countrymen who are already here, and then told to work as a car washer, prostitute, wall plasterer etc. for what they think is good pay. I don't think these people know about minimum wages or British labour laws.