UK construction workers at risk from modern slavery, charity warns

Original article by Diane Taylor

Hundreds of workers are at risk of modern slavery in the UK construction industry, according to human rights monitors.

Data from the helpline of the antislavery charity Unseen has identified the construction industry as an emerging area of risk. It was second only to the care sector in terms of calls to its helpline in 2024 from people who claimed to be exploited.

The charity identified 492 calls relating to construction and 586 to the care sector. It said exploitation of workers in the construction industry was an emerging trend.

The industry is a cornerstone of the economy and is key to the government’s plan for 1.5m homes to be built over the next five years.

CCLA, the UK’s largest charity asset manager, has repeatedly raised concerns about the incidence of modern slavery in construction.

It measures how companies perform at finding, fixing and preventing modern slavery and has found that the industry underperforms on compliance with the 2015 Modern Slavery Act. Working conditions are physically demanding, there is a high reliance on migrant labour and workplaces are often not visible, leaving some workers isolated.

Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, attended a meeting organised by CCLA with senior construction industry representatives and civil society organisations.

In comments she made during the private discussions, which were shared with the Guardian, she said: “The construction sector is vital to our national ambition and our economy, but it is also vulnerable. The risk of exploitation is incredibly high in this sector. We are at a pivotal juncture as we push forward with major housing and infrastructure programmes, but we must ensure that progress does not come at the cost of workers’ rights.

“I know it can be uncomfortable to publicly disclose these issues, but the culture needs to shift. Modern slavery is extremely prevalent. If you are not finding it, I would suggest you are not looking hard enough.”

The employment rights bill, which is going through parliament, aims to strengthen protections for workers including against modern slavery and labour exploitation. The Work Rights Centre has raised concerns that protections against modern slavery and labour exploitation do not go far enough.

The government updated its guidance on transparency in supply chains earlier this year.

Research commissioned by the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre at the University of Oxford last month found significant gaps in knowledge of modern slavery and labour exploitation in the construction industry.

“Without improved data, reporting mechanisms and enforcement capacity the true scale of exploitation is likely to remain hidden,” the report said. It called on agencies that monitor modern slavery and labour exploitation to do more to analyse and share the data they collect.

Sara Thornton, the director of modern slavery at CCLA, said: “Multiple layers of subcontracting, the use of casual labour and skill shortages mean that the construction sector remains at high risk of labour exploitation in the UK. And material supply chains are long and opaque with many raw materials sourced from countries with weak labour market enforcement and poor human rights records.”

Case study

Frank (not his real name) was tricked into coming to the UK from Barbados with his 14-year-old son and endured more than three years of slavery in the construction industry.

“The person that brought me here won my trust, so I was shocked. I didn’t understand there was such a thing as modern-day slavery,” he said.

“One day I lost my job. It was a big salary hit, and it knocked me flat. He gave me a lifeline. ‘Come work for six months – you can earn up to £600 per week.’

“They took us back to this house, and then they let me know the business. If I don’t do the work, they were gonna kill my son – I had no choice.

“So I was getting up at five in the morning until six at night, going out in extreme weather conditions. I’d never been in snow before, working in snow with no proper clothing or equipment. I was hungry to the point where you have conversations with your stomach. Lifting 500 to 600 blocks from one scaffolding to another scaffolding, stirring concrete, tiling roofs, building walls – boy, it was hard.

“I never worked the same place twice. I used to be in the back of the van with the tools, and we drive all over. I worked places I never even knew existed.

“The people whose houses we worked on, private homes and stuff, they don’t know this was going on. When they come in, you’re gone. They don’t care who’s doing the work, they just pay to get the work done.

“For three-and-a-half years, I just complied and did what they wanted, but I got weaker and weaker and weaker, and I couldn’t get the work done any more.

“One morning, I just snapped because I was too weak to lift the blocks, too weak to do anything. This guy was just cursing me, calling me all kind of names and then I think they realised. They brought my son in the van and tell me to get in. They drove us out to a strange neighbourhood and dumped me and my son out on to the street and left us there.”