Episode 9: Anti-slavery Day 2023

Anti-Slavery Day is an opportunity to raise awareness of the fact over 49.6 million people in the world today, and an estimated 136,000 people in the UK, are trapped in conditions of modern slavery. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

The AoEC has made a long-term multi-year commitment to being part of the international campaign to end modern slavery. To help raise awareness of modern slavery in the coaching community, in this episode we discuss how coaching can help those working in organisations on the front line, as well as explore the realities of modern slavery in everyday communities.

You can link with the host and guest panellist here:

John Gray, senior faculty at the AoEC – Episode host
Shayne Tyler, partner at Practical Ethics – guest panellist 

Useful links

Find out more about some of the resources mentioned in the discussion here:

Modern Slavery Act 2015

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/modern-slavery-bill

Global Slavery Index

https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/

Human Trafficking definition

https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/human-trafficking.html

Modern Slavery Helpline

https://www.modernslaveryhelpline.org/

Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority

https://www.gla.gov.uk/

Taken 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taken_(film)

AoEC and modern slavery

https://www.aoec.com/ending-slavery/

Transcript

John 0:06

So, welcome to another AoEC podcast. And my name is John Gray, Senior Faculty with the Academy of Executive Coaching. And today we're focusing on modern slavery and what individuals and organisations can do to prevent themselves profiting from slavery and forced labour. And I'm delighted to be joined by Shane Tyler, who is a long-experienced industry practitioner in forced labour and worker exploitation. And he's also the founder of Practical Ethics, a consultancy that provides advice and support on social governments to organisations and companies. Thanks so much for your time, Shane, in joining us today.

Shane 0:46

You're welcome. Thank you for having me.

John 0:48

And I wondered if you could start by saying more about the work that you do and why you're passionate about tackling modern slavery in today's markets.

Shane 0:56

Yes, certainly. Well, modern slavery is a term that's been banded around for a few years now. I think it cane into prominence following the Modern Slavery Act in 2015. But of course, it's been going on for a much longer time than that. For me, it started on the 19th of June 2000 when I was on Panorama for the illegal employment of over 200 staff. At the time, everybody remembers the date, but for different reasons. The day before 58 Chinese nationals died in the back of a lorry suffocating with tomatoes. And everybody remembers that horrendous event. Well, we were on Panorama the next and yeah, the TV programme aired. Everything that was said in the TV programne was true. We had workers that were being exploited. Of course, we weren't doing anything wrong ourselves directly, but we'd been infiltrated by a criminal gang that was exploiting these workers. That itself was of serious concern to us. Next day after the TV programme had aired, we ended up with a scenario of expecting carnage in the newspapers. There was nothing. And then I started digging into what was actually going on, and that's when my eyes were really opened to this horrendous crime. As I had workers on 17 pence an hour, I had a female worker that was being sexually exploited. I couldn't believe that was going on in the UK, never mind my factory. So I learned that day, it's there and then once you start finding it, I found it every year since. So I know it's quite a horrendous crime.

John 2:30

Indeed. And tell me about practical ethics and what you're hoping to do through

Shane 2:36

Yeah, Practical Ethics. We formed in March 2022, myself and my business partner Jane Bladen. Jane is also an industry expert who comes from a labour provider side of the industry. I'm from a labour user side. We both have personal practical experience of finding, resolving, and remedying cases of exploitation, multiple cases over many years. I think the difference that Practical Ethics has compared to other organisations, and there's some great work and great practitioners out there, is that we are able to not just tell you what to do, because that's obviously anybody can do that, but more importantly, how. So, as you've got issues, how are they going to actually apply that onto the ground so it can have a real practical difference?

Speaker 3:21

Okay, thank you. And as you know, you've been in touch with AoEC over the last few years. And we've had a commitment of several years now of supporting the campaign against modern slavery and against work or exploitation. Obviously, as a coaching training provider, we don't have the skills to work directly with the survivors of modern slavery, but we can support the organisations that are doing that work and who are campaigning and lobbying for legislation and for effective regulation. So, as a coaching company, what we're interested in is workplaces at their best through coaching. And of course, slavery is about work in its worst possible format, and for us that seems to be a fit in terms of how can we help in an urgent problem within labour markets across the UK and across the world.

Shane 4:16

Yeah, most definitely. Well, I went on an AoEC training course last year, and to me it was invaluable as I found the understanding my personal awareness and how my personal awareness engages with others. That's critical because you're dealing with some of the most vulnerable people in your business or your supply chain. So, yeah, I see coaching has a critical role to play in how we deploy our tactics for tackling modern slavery and worker exploitation.

John 4:45

I'm glad you enjoyed the course, and that's our two-day coaching skills certificate, which we run as a regular programme, and every year we run a pro bono programme specifically open to individuals, activists, and people working in organisations against modern slavery to get an opportunity for coaching skills training. So if anyone's listening to this and is interested in taking a place in next year's programme, please do get in touch with us. uh planning to run that again next year. And part of our work is about awareness raising as well as support for modern slavery organisations, hence this podcast. So I wonder, Shane, if you could say a little bit more about what you see on the horizon for particularly the UK labour market and the challenges for regulating and spotting modern slavery.

Shane 5:38

We're on route to an extremely difficult period of time. It's been quite challenging for a number of years, certainly since post-Brexit, but that we do have a significant hurdles ahead in all four areas of recruitment. Typically, there are four pillars of recruitment of workers into the United Kingdom for any business. They are the EU settled or pre-settled status, that's under particular challenge because there is three levels to the EU settled status route. EU settled status, pre-settled status, or certificate of application. The certificate of application route is about to be closed, or has just closed, and over the next six months, large numbers of workers that were currently on that certificate of application and constantly renewing, they're going to be refused by the Home Office for living and working in the United Kingdom. It's not a problem necessarily that that's the decision the government has made. It's the sheer scale of workers that are in that loop. It's estimated to be in excess of 650,000 for Bulgarians and Romanians alone, estimated to be in excess of a million workers that are caught up in that. If you then apply that to the rest of the workforce, where are those workers going to be replaced from? And there is a risk that they could become illegals. That's one. The second one is the seasonal worker scheme. That's a scheme that was put in place, tier that was put in place for workers to come in to support the agricultural industry. That's actually quite well regulated. It's had its problems regarding fee payments, but is ongoing. It's going to continue to have challenges as it recruits from countries that are generally impoverished and come in from distant lands. So there's a challenge, but at least it's regulated. The tier two, which is the skilled worker route, which often takes from other same routes as that. There's over 65,000 companies in the United Kingdom that can take from that labour pool. That's totally, as far as I'm concerned, unregulated. And it's like the Wild West. That's a real headache because I think there's some challenges coming there, especially in sectors like care, hospitality, construction, some real challenging days ahead. And then there's the final sector, which is the UK-based and indefinite leave to remain, those that have the right to remain in the United Kingdom. Because of things like the growing and impending cost of living crisis, et cetera, people are wanting to either take second jobs or they're going to work in addition to benefit claimants, et cetera. They're technically working illegal. And every single illegal worker I've ever found, I've always found them to be exploited. So if we are increasing the vulnerabilities at the very, very lowest levels across all of the recruitment pillars that we have into our workforce, it can only sadly look worse. That's a real headache. What we do from a business perspective is we help and businesses understand truly on the ground where their risks are, how they can help mitigate those risks, and what practical solutions they can put in place that just distance themselves from it. Very often you can be told what to do. It's as I mentioned earlier, it's about how this you can actually do this, and this is how you do it.

John 9:00

Okay. So if I heard you in terms of non-UK nationals looking ahead, what I heard you do is link the potential for greater illegality simply because of changing regulations or lack of regulation. And what you did was to link illegality and exploitation as often going together as a precursor or as the reality of exploitation.

Shane 9:25

Yeah, they're actually intrinsically linked. Now, the only one thing that an exploiter wants is money, and they can only get at that money where the worker, which is the only victim of exploitation, is exploited. So there's always an opportunity for an exploiter to get at that money somehow. That they get at it through your vulnerability. So to the point, John, if you were coming through any supply route into the United Kingdom and I can identify where you are vulnerable and where I can get access to that cash, then I'll do it. It's all about that process of you coming over and me getting into where I can. Now, if you are inherently illegal, then by its very nature you are vulnerable because you know that you don't want other people to know you're working illegally. So by that very nature, you are vulnerable to attack. And every single illegal worker I've found in over 23 years, I have found attached exploitation, which is scary. That doesn't mean every illegal worker necessarily is being exploited, but every illegal worker I've found has been.

John 10:42

And that certainly gives a new facet to understanding the implications, not least for the cost of living crisis, which is affecting so many people across the country.

Shane 10:50

Yeah, we're seeing increased working hours, we're seeing people that are willing to work on dodgy visas, whatever, just to get at money, because that's the only way they're going to keep their head above water. It's looking pretty nasty out there at the moment.

John 11:06

And in terms of those four pillars, I understood them as mostly referring to non-UK nationals, but of course, UK nationals, as I gather from you, make up the great majority of labour exploitation in this country.

Shane 11:20

Yeah, there's in the region of about 3,700 live investigations as it stands at this moment in time by the 43 constabularies of police around the UK. Over 25% of the victims that go into the national referral mechanism, which is the government's mechanism for dealing with victims of exploitation, modern slavery, are British. So while the nationalities, two you know, three-quarters of them are foreign nationals, by a nation its lone, the British is number one. And the reason why we're the number one nation for being exploited is because we win by numbers. There are more vulnerable Brits than anything else. And if we look at vulnerability across the whole social spectrum, of whether that being drug dependent, alcohol dependent, financially dependent, because they're in debt, whatever that vulnerability may be, the exploiter is skilled. It is their job, it is their business to identify where your vulnerability is. So it's just natural that therefore they identify that the British are more of an opportunity.

John 12:29

So what I'm gathering from you, Shane, is that no matter what your industry, white collar, blue collar, the potential for slavery to be present within an organisation is very common. And I wonder what organisations and individuals can best do or how can how they can best think in order to make sure that they don't end up on Panorama with their labour conditions being exposed.

Shane 12:56

That's a great question. First off, picking it into two parts. The first part is about how common it is. Well, the global slavery index puts the numbers for the United Kingdom at about 136,000 victims of modern slavery, which is scary. It's one in 480 people. If we look at the illegality point that I covered off in the previous question, that one million people that are potentially in the UK already that are illegal, and add on to that a potentially another one million as part of the certificate of application, two million people out of a population of 65 million. What are we looking at there? 3% of the country's population? One in 30 people, one in third, 40 people that could be living here and working here illegally. That's a scary number. So any business that thinks that it's not in their business or supply chain is kidding themselves. Now, that doesn't mean they've got modern slavery, but the chances are they've got some level of exploitation. Now, white collar, blue collar, well, it's a vulnerability. It doesn't care what it is. And the exploiter will identify wherever that vulnerability is. So you can actually be quite an affluent person or or somebody that's coming across as quite well established. But if you are vulnerable to somebody, they'll exploit that. And I think that's sometimes where also modern slavery can be a little bit difficult because who associates themselves to be a modern slavery? I think the best way to think of modern slavery is through the human trafficking definition. It's made up of three points action, means, and purpose. Action is the transportation, harbouring, or receipt of a person where you have control and power over them, the means, for the purpose of making money. Now, if you think of that in a slightly different way, action, means and purpose, the transportation or control of a product where you have control and power over that product for the purpose of making that's a business. That's not exploitation, that's a business. You are just seeing a commodity, in this case human beings. That does not mean that those that are exploiting are not criminals, of course they are criminals. But I encourage business to think of those that are doing this to their workers at whatever level as a just a business that is operating. Because if you think of them as criminals and criminals alone, you can be powerless at times because you don't have the ability to go take on criminals, but you do have the ability to compete. And I encourage all organisations to recognise that those that are competing against them for their most precious asset, their people, you need to understand that. You need to understand the processes that the exploiters are going through so that you can find ways to exploit their processes, to find a way of competing against them. Because criminals or these business people that are exploiting your workers are lazy. And if you make it difficult for them, they'll go somewhere else. And if collaboratively we all make it different, we might be able to force them out of industries and hopefully out of our country. But we have to recognise in the first instance that it's there, and the second instance that we're going to go do something about it.

John 16:13

And that's really striking the way you reframe that, partly to reassure us that it's not about taking on criminal gangs directly, but it's about making sure that our processes, our procedures, our protocols, as far as possible, eliminate the possibility for vulnerability.

Shane 16:29

Most definitely. Well, in 2005, I learned from a mistake. I uncovered a gang operating in a city within the United Kingdom. I reacted without enough information, I handled the case incorrectly, and while we got seven victims of exploitation out as a direct consequence of my actions that day, I received a threat from the gang. And just as much as we need to make sure that we're pursuing cases, which is absolutely critical, we have to do something, we have to do it in a responsible way so that we are protecting all stakeholders. And all stakeholders, I mean the customers, the business itself, of course, the victims, but yourself. You can't forget these are criminals. So therefore, you need to be making sure you're applying apportionate controls. That said, if you think of them as competitors, at no point are you doing anything other than that would be considered normal business practice. There's no reason for a threat at that point, you're just making it uncomfortable. And if it's uncomfortable, they will go somewhere else. And that's exactly what you want.

John 17:38

Okay, thank you. And it's really sobering to hear what you're sharing, Shane. And I guess I'm wondering for any listeners who have concerns or are noticing signs that maybe they want to take action on, what are the sources of support and help that they can look to?

Speaker 1 17:56

Okay, well, thankfully there are a number of places that you can go and a number of things that you can do. The first thing I encourage everybody to do is to think truly about what modern slavery is for all partners. So the first thing I've already mentioned about not treating necessarily those that are the exploiters as criminals and competing against them. Likewise for the victims, if I could just ask the listeners to think for a moment about what they would be experiencing if they were a victim, I want them to think of the most embarrassing thing they've ever done in their life. The single thing that they are so ashamed of they wouldn't even tell their nearest and dearest. And because of that, if they're not going to tell their nearest and dearest, they're really not going to tell us. So because they're not going to tell us, they're truly hidden in plain sight. And I would argue if they were going to tell us, they're going to tell us anyway. So we have to go do something. It's not acceptable to sit there and not do anything because these people are suffering and they're suffering in silence. Because of that, what we have to go do, in my view, is we need to go and consider what the actual true signs of modern slavery are. And of course, there are lots of resources out there, just Google it, signs of modern slavery. You will find a plethora of guidance that will tell you what to look for. And they are important, and I encourage the listeners to go and look for those signs, and if you see them, to adequately respond to them. However, you have to remember that those business people, those criminals that are trying to hide it from you are also aware of those signs. So they will be hiding those signs from you. It's their job to hide those signs from you. And I refer to those signs as the presence of abnormal. They are present and they're abnormal, so if you see them, you react to them. What I encourage the listeners to go do is look for the absence of normal. If there is somebody in your workforce that is not talking about what they did last weekend or the coming weekend in their personal life, that is a quite normal conversation and it's absent. If you are identifying the absence of normal, you're more likely to spot something because that's truly what tackling modern slavery is about. The exploiters also can't hide something that's absent because it's not there anyway. So, how do you hide it? So you, in effect, are able to get one up on them. It's very difficult to do, but if you actually master it, you can start seeing things. And trust your gut when you're following that. What you then do with that information is the first off is to protect, i.e., protect yourself and protect the victim. Don't escalate too quickly, de-escalate. Make sure that you're reporting it into the right angles to the professionals that can go do something about it. If you go do something about it yourself, you'll more than likely will place different stakeholders at risk, including yourself. Now, reporting it, there's the modern slavery helpline, there's the police, there's the gang masses and labour abuse authority. But my first port of call for you would be if you suspect it and you've de-escalated, you've backed away, because that's an important thing to you've therefore bought yourself some time to go, who do I report modern slavery to? And Google, and it will come up with the relevant organisations you can do that. And I assure you the authorities will appreciate that you've taken that step. Keep yourself safe.

John 21:29

And I'm hearing the reassurance and confidence there from all your years of experience, not least the encouragement about de-escalation in order for longer-term effectiveness in tackling what we see or discover. You've been involved in this work, as you said, for over 20 years. I wonder what realistic, simple but effective change you would make that could help in ending this scourge as we find it.

Shane 21:56

Wow, I need to be a sorcerer. I would first off wish there was full awareness. Everybody was aware it was there. Arguably, I think we are. We've all watched the films like Taken, for example, with Leon Neeson. We've all watched it and seen how he's gone about to go protect his daughter and get her out of sex trafficking ring. We watched that film and it's almost that we've got an apathy to this crime going on, but on the ground, it's real. There are people suffering, and I promise you, when you look into the eyes of true victims, it's horrendous to see how much of their soul has been removed. So if I had a magic wand, if I could go and suddenly have something today, I would encourage people to become aware. Then I would ask them to go look for it and pursue. I would encourage them to always ensure they protect themselves and all stakeholders. I would encourage them, if their organisations particularly, to do absolutely everything that they can to prevent, but recognise the fact that even if they did everything that they could physically do to prevent it, they're not going to truly stop it and therefore must take action to prepare to ensure that they can suitably protect in the future.

John 23:13

Well, may that happen, and of course, for many organisations, it's probably working with with our suppliers as well as with our own direct labour force. So there are all kinds of opportunities.

Shane 23:25

There are, and one of the things I think that we could do from from our perspective, from Practical Ethics, is we can help businesses realise that. We can help them realise where the risks are in their organisation, what hazards they face, and then practically point them in the right direction for tackling that. It's absolutely critical. I'm confident that businesses can do it, organisations can do it, because I've seen the net results.

John 23:50

And we will post links to the various organisations that you've mentioned. We'll include those within the podcast. And the AoEC website, aoec.com forward slash ending.slavery, shows it contains information about the kind of support we're offering to activists, to volunteers, to staff in organisations who are working like yourself to combat modern slavery. And thank you again for your time today, Shane.

Shane 24:17

Thank you very, very much. Lovely to speak to you, John.