The City Mayor will answer questions raised by members of the Commission on issues not covered elsewhere on the agenda.
Members are asked to submit these questions in advance of the meeting.
Minutes:
a) Possible Exploitative Practices in Textile Factories in Leicester
Councillor Waddington asked the City Mayor the following question:
“As a consequence of the pandemic and lockdown, attention has again been drawn to some of the textile factories in Leicester which are flouting health and safety regulations, failing to pay the minimum wage and opening when they should have been closed. I hope the opportunity provided by the pandemic will lead to steps being to end these exploitative practices once and for all.
Can the City Mayor explain what action is currently being taken by the Council together with Government Agencies to inspect and regulate these factories, and will he ask for officers to prepare a report on the problems and solutions for the next meeting of this Commission?”
In reply, the City Mayor advised the Commission that he had been very concerned about the practices of some garment manufacturers in the city, particularly as Leicester had the second largest concentration of these in the United Kingdom.
A meeting was convened of all agencies approximately three years ago, as most enforcement powers lay with agencies outside of local government, (for example, the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority and the Health and Safety Executive). Those agencies’ ability to co-ordinate action at a local level was limited, so work since then had been undertaken to create a context in which they could meet in the city.
There had been a considerable increase in interest by those with regulatory powers in working with the Council. As a result, agencies had undertaken a number of visits to employers where it was thought a problem could exist and they had advised that they were reassured that it was a small number of employers who were giving the rest a bad name. The City Mayor offered to brief the Commission further on this at a future meeting, when appropriate agency representatives also could be present.
Further attention had been drawn to this issue following suggestions that “sweatshops” were a source of transmission of the Covid-19 virus in the city, but evidence to support this had not been found. However, the government’s “test and trace” system for Covid-19 cases did not have any focus on place of work, which gave rise to some concern about the reliability of the data. Therefore, although highlighting the issue of “sweatshops” was welcome, it had the effect of diverting attention from the main problem in dealing with Covid-19 in the city, which was a lack of proper data.
Members recognised that this was a highly complex issue and expressed the hope that progress could now be made, although it was noted that recommendations in relation to addressing the issue of “sweatshops” made last year by a parliamentary select committee had been rejected by the government.
AGREED:
1) That the position regarding possible exploitative practices in textile factories in Leicester be noted; and
2) That the City Mayor be asked to brief this Commission further on the situation regarding possible exploitative practices in textile factories in the city, if possible at either the Commission’s next or subsequent meeting, this briefing to include updates from representatives of appropriate agencies if considered useful.
b) Links between Places of Work and Outbreaks of Covid-19
Councillor Porter expressed concern that it appeared that information from Public Health England (PHE) was being interpreted as PHE stating that there was no correlation between places of work and outbreaks of the Covid-19 virus. Councillor Porter also expressed concern that reports of bad employment practices in Leicester were being made through national and international media.
The City Mayor agreed that PHE had very limited evidence and had not provided the Council with evidence that was particularly useful. A group including those with the power to enforce better employment practices therefore had been convened and a Council officer had been employed to co-ordinate this work.
Councillor Clarke, (Deputy City Mayor – Environment and Transportation), reminded the Commission that a parliamentary select committee had published recommendations in relation to “sweatshops” in 2019 and prior to that a Human Rights Select Committee also had considered the issue. Among the recommendations made by local authorities had been that they should have powers to enforce improved employment practices, but all of the recommendations made by local authorities had been rejected. Now that the Council had taken steps to co-ordinate local work on these issues, it looked forward to making positive changes in partnership with the garment industry and other partners.