Vulnerable workers are still being dangerously exploited, says a union boss on the twentieth anniversary of the Morecambe Bay cockling disaster.
Twenty-three Chinese migrants drowned after they became engulfed by the spring tide when picking cockles off Hest Bank in the bay in northwest England.
Unite the union said the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, set up in the wake of the disaster and which became the Gangmaster Licensing and Abuse Authority in 2017, is not fit for purpose after years of underfunding.
“It is now 20 years since the Morecambe Bay disaster and the dangerous exploitation of vulnerable workers is still rife,” said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham.
Unite alleges that not only has the government expanded the remit of the GLAA amid scarcer resources, but it has also deliberately excluded trade unions of late.
“It is an outrage that since 2017 the government has repeatedly chosen to attack unions and weaken employment rights wherever possible, instead of trying making people’s lives better,” continued Graham.
“The replacement of the GLA with a dangerously under-resourced and overstretched organisation with no trade union oversight is just one example of this.”
Since the Morecambe Bay disaster, insecure employment practices such as zero-hour contracts, bogus self-employment and gig economy work, have become increasingly normalised, says Unite.
“My fear is that unless something changes it can only be a matter of time until the next tragedy,” said Graham.
