The partnership will deliver bespoke training for the supermarket’s suppliers. Training will focus on helping the retailer’s suppliers identify hidden exploitative practices on farms, pack houses, processing plants and factories throughout the global supply-chain.
Commenting on the bespoke training packages, GLA chief executive Paul Broadbent said: “We are delighted to have forged this industry leading agreement and to work alongside Sainsbury in this way.
“Such activity [exploitation], by its very nature, is kept hidden by its perpetrators as far as possible and is difficult to detect but there are indicators to look out for and these are what we will be teaching Sainsbury’s product suppliers to spot.”
Sainsbury’s participation, in raising awareness through training, was showing a determination to help remedy the problem of exploitation, he said.
‘Hidden labour exploitation’
Director of Sainsbury’s brand Judith Batchelar said: “We’re proud to have carried out the first pilot training for our suppliers in partnership with GLA. We hope this takes us a step further in tackling hidden labour exploitation.
“Modern slavery within global supply chains is a serious issue and it is a priority of ours to work with our suppliers to address it.”
The training builds upon the GLA’s Supplier/Retail Protocol that was launched in October 2013 by home secretary Theresa May.
Meanwhile, two men have been convicted of exploiting migrant workers by acting as unlicensed gangmasters in Cambridgeshire.
The men, Juris Valujevs and Ivars Mezals, both Latvians, were convicted of acting as unlicensed gangmasters last Wednesday (December 17) after a nine-week trial at Blackfriars Crown Court, London.
Valujevs, aged 36, of Turbus Road, Kings Lynn, and Ivars Mezals, aged 28, of Conference Way, Wisbech, supplied firms with migrant workers from the Latvian and Lithuanian communities between 2009 and 2013, the court was told.
‘Debt-bondage’
The workers, who harvested crops on Fenland farms, said they were promised plentiful and well-paid employment but rarely received work immediately. Also the work was tightly controlled, keeping them in a state of ‘debt bondage’.
The convicted men intercepted the workers’ wages and made unwarranted deductions for rent, debt, transport and fines, in some cases leaving them with £20 or less a week to live on.
The court was also told how Valujevs told one female witness that she would “end up like Alisa”, which she took to be a reference to a woman whose body was found on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk in January 2012.
Detective chief inspector Donna Wass, who led the investigation, said: “Valujevs and Mezals ran an illegal operation that left many people in abject poverty and debt and a feeling there was no way out of their situation.
“They ruled through fear – playing on their reputations to ensure their workers stayed in line and did not seek outside help – and approached the exploitation of people as a business opportunity. I hope the outcome of this case shows how seriously we take these matters and will encourage other victims of exploitation to contact police.”
The two men will be sentenced at a later date.