Stamp Out Slavery

Stamp Out Slavery Helping companies and individuals spot the signs of modern slavery

The Employment Rights Act 2025 is changing how variable-hours workers are treated in the UK.For the cleaning sector, thi...
18/06/2026

The Employment Rights Act 2025 is changing how variable-hours workers are treated in the UK.

For the cleaning sector, this is not abstract. It's operational.

Under the phased rollout happening through 2026 and 2027, workers on variable hours will gain the right to request a contract reflecting their actual average hours. Employers must provide reasonable notice of shifts. Last-minute cancellations may require compensation. Agency workers are included.

These protections exist because variable-hours arrangements have historically been used — sometimes deliberately, sometimes carelessly — to keep workers in a state of dependency. No guaranteed hours means no guaranteed income. No guaranteed income means no bargaining power. And no bargaining power is precisely the condition in which exploitation flourishes.

The Act doesn't replace the need for supply chain due diligence. But it raises the baseline. Organisations that rely on subcontracted labour in cleaning, security or hospitality should be asking their suppliers how they're responding.

If your cleaning provider can't explain how they'll comply, that's a conversation worth having now — not after the enforcement window opens.

Have you asked your suppliers how they're preparing for the Employment Rights Act?

📊 Source: Pinsent Masons — Employment Rights Act Implementation Timeline

It's National Safety Month.Most of the conversation this month will be about PPE, COSHH assessments, risk registers and ...
15/06/2026

It's National Safety Month.

Most of the conversation this month will be about PPE, COSHH assessments, risk registers and chemical handling procedures. That's important work, and it should continue.

But there's a workforce safety issue that rarely makes the agenda: whether the workers themselves are free.

A cleaner who is being paid below minimum wage through a third-party intermediary is not safe. A security guard whose passport has been confiscated by the agency that recruited them is not safe. A maintenance operative who is living in accommodation controlled by their employer and has no written contract is not safe.

These are not hypothetical scenarios. They are documented patterns of labour exploitation in UK workplaces, across cleaning, security, construction and hospitality.

Worker safety doesn't stop at hazard prevention. It includes the fundamental question of whether the person doing the job is there by choice, is being paid fairly and has the freedom to leave.

If your National Safety Month programme doesn't include modern slavery awareness, it's incomplete.

Does yours?

If you or someone you know needs help, the Modern Slavery Helpline is free, confidential and available 24/7: 08000 121 700

A coalition of anti-slavery organisations has published a ten-year vision for eradicating modern slavery in the UK.It's ...
11/06/2026

A coalition of anti-slavery organisations has published a ten-year vision for eradicating modern slavery in the UK.

It's called A Decade of Dignity, and its assessment of where things stand is blunt: despite the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the UK's response has deteriorated. Enforcement is fragmented. Policing is under-resourced. Business regulation lacks teeth. Survivors are not consistently supported.

The report sets out four priorities for the next decade: stronger corporate accountability, a tougher justice response, long-term survivor recovery and a coordinated strategy to protect children from exploitation.

Andrew Wallis OBE, who co-authored the report, put it plainly — the government published a modern slavery action plan but didn't follow through on the harder requirement: a long-term approach with real accountability.

This matters for every organisation operating in a high-risk sector. When government enforcement is inconsistent, the gap has to be filled by voluntary, independent, verifiable action from the businesses themselves.

Waiting for someone else to fix this is not a strategy. It's a liability.

Which of these four priorities does your organisation have the most influence over?

📊 Source: Unseen UK — A Decade of Dignity

Homelessness is one of the strongest predictors of vulnerability to modern slavery in the UK.The Modern Slavery and Huma...
09/06/2026

Homelessness is one of the strongest predictors of vulnerability to modern slavery in the UK.

The Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre recently published research examining the scale of this intersection. The findings confirm what frontline organisations have known for years: people experiencing homelessness are disproportionately targeted by traffickers and labour exploiters.

The mechanics are straightforward. Someone without stable housing is offered work and accommodation by the same person. The work turns out to be exploitative. The accommodation is tied to the job. Leaving means losing both.

Debt bo***ge follows. Wages are withheld or paid to a third party. The worker has no contract, no recourse and nowhere to go. Fear of returning to rough sleeping keeps them compliant.

This is not a marginal issue. The National Referral Mechanism recorded over 17,000 potential victims in 2023 alone, and researchers consistently report that many cases are never referred.

If your organisation subcontracts labour in any sector where workers may be vulnerably housed, this research should inform your due diligence.

What does your organisation do to assess housing vulnerability in its supply chain workforce?

📊 Source: Modern Slavery PEC / Home Office NRM Statistics 2023

08/06/2026

It's World Environment Day.

Most organisations in the cleaning and FM sector will post about sustainability today. Biodegradable chemicals, reduced packaging, lower carbon footprints. And that matters.

But sustainability has three pillars: environmental, economic and social. The S in ESG isn't optional.

An organisation can switch to plant-based cleaning products and publish a net-zero commitment while the subcontracted workforce cleaning its buildings at night is underpaid, undocumented and afraid to speak up. That's not sustainable. That's selective.

An estimated 122,000 to 130,000 people are in modern slavery in the UK. Many of them work in the same sectors making sustainability pledges today — cleaning, construction, hospitality, agriculture.

If your ESG strategy doesn't include supply chain labour standards, it has a gap. And that gap is a risk — reputational, legal and human.

Real sustainability means the people doing the work are protected too.

Does your sustainability reporting cover the social pillar as thoroughly as the environmental one?

📊 Source: Centre for Social Justice / Unseen UK

08/06/2026

Today we are celebrating World Environment Day! 🌳

If you would like to become more environmentally friendly, check out some of our free courses dedicated to being more mindful and sustainable:

An Introduction to Environmental Awareness - Explains the impacts of the cleaning industry and suggests alternatives

Greenwashing: What's your understanding? - Explains what greenwashing is and how to spot it

Get started for FREE today! (LINK)

08/06/2026

Amelia Amesbury, Assistant Technical Specialist at BICSc, reports.

08/06/2026

Callum MacLeod, Managing Director of Stamp Out Slavery, reports.

04/06/2026

The government just published a 74-page report on what actually works in preventing labour exploitation.

It's called Decent Work, produced by Lancaster University's Pentland Centre and the Office of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement. It landed in April 2026 and it's one of the most useful pieces of evidence the Fair Work Agency has to work with.

The central finding won't surprise anyone who works in cleaning, FM or security: no single organisation can fix this alone. Exploitation thrives in the gaps between employers, agencies, clients and regulators. The report calls for collective buyer approaches, shared supply chain standards and independent verification mechanisms.

In other words, the exact model SOS was built on.

It also highlights that workers least likely to report exploitation are those most at risk of it. Language barriers, immigration status, fear of losing work. The report recommends businesses work with intermediaries to reach those workers directly, not just wait for them to come forward.

This is publicly available evidence, commissioned by a government enforcement body. If your organisation operates in a high-risk sector, it's worth reading. The full report is on gov.uk.

Has your organisation reviewed how it stacks up against these recommendations?

📊 Source: Decent Work — GOV.UK / Fair Work Agency / Lancaster University

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