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ALP representative and policy work
ABOUT THE ALP
ALP REPRESENTATIVE AND POLICY WORK
Immigration Policy
The Government wants to reduce overall levels of migration and give priority to those with higher skills through the introduction of a new points-based system. The Immigration Policy Statement confirms that “We will not introduce a general low-skilled or temporary work route. We need to shift the focus of our economy away from a reliance on cheap labour from Europe and instead concentrate on investment in technology and automation. Employers will need to adjust”.
IMMIGRATION AND RIGHT TO WORK
ALP has produced comprehensive guidance, FAQs, webinars and training to support labour providers to continue to effectively operate within the new rules.
The ALP’s policy is that sector-based schemes for lower skilled workers should be introduced for Covid-19 critical sectors such as health, social care and food supply where evidence indicates a shortage. The Migration Advisory Committee should make annual evidencebased recommendations to government on sectors, roles and thresholds for temporary immigration of lower skilled workers.
Experiences of recruiting UK resident workers for seasonal work in 2020 has been mixed. The Seasonal Workers Scheme pilot, despite the impact of the pandemic has been a success. The KPI results from both operators have been very positive. ALP has published the ‘Achieving a Successful Seasonal Workers Scheme’ and ‘Seasonal Workers' Scheme Code of Good Practice Multi-Stakeholder Working Group - Recommendations for future scheme design’ reports. ALP’s position on the future Scheme is to allow more GLAA licensed labour providers to become sponsors with licence numbers based on evidence of seasonal labour demands.
Access to Labour
A key focus of ALP’s activities in recent years has been supporting members and the wider food supply chain to improve their ability to source and retain workers in a near full employment economy.
ACCESS TO LABOUR
The coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally changed the labour market with unemployment now predicted to be at its highest level in decades. The new immigration rules will significantly reduce the ability of businesses to recruit lower skilled labour from outside the UK although around 4 million EU nationals will have been granted settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement
ABOUT THE ALP
ALP REPRESENTATIVE AND POLICY WORK
Scheme. The government is rolling out its ‘Plan for Jobs’ to boost job creation in the UK. The challenge will be to attract and supply the right number of UK resident workers with the right quality and skill level to work within the food supply chain.
Fair Competition/Fair Charge Rates - Fair’s Fair
Payment of fair charge rates to labour providers that enable business sustainability and do not foster worker exploitation or tax evasion is a core ALP policy priority. ALP has launched a new ongoing workstream “Fair’s Fair” - an awareness and education programme to support the commercially sustainable procurement of agency labour so that workers never pay the price of poor purchasing practice.
FAIR’S FAIR
n Explains and builds understanding among procurement teams about how unscrupulous labour providers create additional income to bolster their earnings, and how to ensure that labour is procured fairly.
n Supplies tools and training to help labour providers achieve sustainable commercial agreements that support them to source and retain agency workers fairly. n Provides examples and statistics and engages with stakeholders to agree good practice guidelines and work towards a Fair’s
Fair Charter.
ALP labour provider members are encouraged to engage their labour users in the programme by sharing the resources available.
Labour Market Enforcement
In July 2019, the government announced proposals to create a single labour market enforcement body, with consistent powers to enforce payment of the minimum wage along with holiday payments for vulnerable workers, safeguard agency workers and tackle labour exploitation and modern slavery. The ALP has advocated for the creation of such an enforcement body for over ten years and made a detailed submission to the government consultation, “Good work plan: establishing a new single enforcement body for employment rights”. The ALP puts the case to the Low Pay Commission, BEIS, HMRC and the devolved Agricultural Wages teams on matters of wage policy that impact upon labour providers. The ALP is engaged with the Office of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement on the wider UK Labour Market Enforcement Strategy.
ABOUT THE ALP
ALP REPRESENTATIVE AND POLICY WORK
The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority
The ALP supports proportionate regulation of labour provision to facilitate fair competition. The 2019 ALP survey confirmed that 95% of labour providers are in favour of gangmasters licensing. ALP policy is to:
n Work in partnership with the GLAA to tackle labour exploitation
n Work with the GLAA to ensure that its processes are fair and proportionate and that unreasonable burdens are not imposed on compliant operators
n Challenge the GLAA where it is necessary and appropriate to do so. The ALP has formally raised concerns with the GLAA that it must refocus its activities back to the licensed sector and allocate more of its resources on its core purpose to “maintain a credible licensing scheme, creating a level playing field and promoting growth”. The GLAA must be able to demonstrate that it identifies and addresses illegal gangmasters and existing licence holders and their clients that profiteer and gain unfair competitive advantage through unrealistically low labour supply charge rates achieved through tax evasion, work finding fees or denying workers their basic legal rights. The ALP calls upon the GLAA to review its compliance strategy and operations to ensure that it maintains a credible licensing scheme and specifically: 1. The GLAA should engage with stakeholders to develop a risk and intelligence based
Compliance Inspection Strategy in line with the Regulators Code 3.3 which states,
“Regulators designing a risk assessment framework…should have mechanisms in place to consult on the design with those affected, and to review it regularly.”
2. The GLAA should demonstrate that it conducts a proportionate level of compliance inspections to fulfil its statutory responsibilities and to “maintain a credible licensing scheme, creating a level playing field”.
3. The GLAA should formally review its current compliance inspection policy of only inspecting licence holders against a very limited number of the licensing standards.
4. The GLAA should ensure that compliance issues between the GLAA and licence holders should be processed and resolved within a reasonable period.
5. The GLAA should restrict licensing to those businesses operating and intending to operate within the regulated sector.
6. The GLAA should undertake a broad spectrum of activities in addition to compliance inspections in support of its compliance responsibilities and objectives.
7. Publicly reported GLAA performance analysis should identify the effectiveness of the GLAA compliance activities in maintaining a credible licensing scheme and creating a level playing field for competition.
ABOUT THE ALP
ALP REPRESENTATIVE AND POLICY WORK
Responsible Recruitment
The ALP since its inception has promoted ethical recruitment and good practice in labour provision.
RESPONSIBLE RECRUITMENT TOOLKIT.ORG
ALP members can now access for free:
n A subscription to the
ResponsibleRecruitmentToolkit.org online tool
n Stronger Together Tackling Modern Slavery which enables labour providers to promote n Unlimited online
ResponsibleRecruitmentToolkit.org delegate training places
in UK Businesses training for a delegate toolkits and resources
n A short, animated video to use in inductions explaining how to avoid problems, rights at work, and where and how to report issues
ALP has also worked with partners to develop the UK version of the Just Good Work app n Stronger Together Tackling Modern Slavery
good recruitment and employment practices throughout their operations and supply chain by providing consistent information to jobseekers and workers.
JUST GOOD WORK
MEMBER 2020 Benefits of ALP Membership #18
ALP MEMBERSHIP LOGO
Show your customers and workers that you are serious about good practice, by displaying the ALP logo in your offices, minibuses, on your written material and online.
ALP never fails to support “ OUR MEMBERS SAY
ALP EXPERT SUPPORT
> How we support our members
> Good practice for using labour providers
> Coronavirus
> Immigration and right to work
> Access to labour
> Worker sourcing and supply
> Worker retention
> Calculating charge rates
> Legal and ethical compliance
> The transport to work revolution
> Fair's Fair
> Just Good Work
