The risk of slavery in hand car washes across the UK has been exposed by new data from Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and modern slavery charity, The Clewer Initiative. It reveals a prevalence of indicators that make exploitation and slavery more likely.
When The Responsible Car Wash Scheme attempted to introduce a Code of Practice, hardly any hand car washes met all the criteria. The entire sector is endemically unlawful and non-compliant.
Therefore, consumers and police officers in every community need to be vigilant to spot the signs of slavery and other unlawful behavior—no hand car wash is immune.
This deep dive into the endemically unlawful and under-regulated sector:
Connected the current data on hand car wash locations held by The Clewer Initiative’s Safe Car Wash App and NTU’s research data
Enabled the team to model the type of neighborhood where a hand car wash business is likely to be located
Explored the type of neighborhoods where you are more likely to find a hand car wash business which has been reported through the App as showing warning signs of exploitation and slavery
Highlighted that more than 90% of hand car washes are likely to be employing workers illegally, without proper pay, records, PPE or first aid measures
Created a visual map for police and other agencies to use to understand where the greatest threat of modern slavery could occur.
I would say that slavery could perhaps be considered an occupational hazard!
Slavery or the imprisoning /detaining personel against their will to enforce labour was once common in farming ,construction and many other industries in this country and probably still goes on.
Gangs would (and probably still do) convince unwitting refugees to come over here to work for them on the promise of great wages and full board. Once here these people would be kept in shacks,caravans and the likes, but usually in overcrowded slum conditions, threatened with violence or beaten daily and forced to work without pay or for food (if they were lucky)
A few years back the construction industry raised awareness of this problem and asked the workforce to be vigilant,to keep their eyes open and report any signs or suspicions of enforced labour. Thanks to this awareness campaign many of these gangs were caught and imprisoned ,thousands of illegally detained people were released… The car wash app was set up for a similar purpose
Raising awareness on the subject of occupational hazards is not solely about RPE ,employees face many risks and many hazards…
As for car washing ,PPE required would be waterproof footwear and clothing ,protective gloves , eye protection, a respirator for use when cleaning the inside of dirty vehicles , a respirator would also be required when the likes of chemical sprays, special waxes, sealers, body finishes or any other solvents were in use… Take care