Licensing officials ready to target illegal gangmasters
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About 800 gangmasters in farming and horticulture have applied for a licence on the last day for applications.
The gangmaster system is widely used to provide staff for seasonal work on farms and factories in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire.
The new Gangmaster Licensing Authority believes there are 1,000 official gangmaster operations but twice as many in the shadow economy unregistered.
Authority head Mike Wilson said it would clamp down on illegal operators.
Clean up call
He said: "We have a range of intelligence gathering systems and among these are to tap into disillusioned gangmasters or disillusioned labour and people who feel their business has been undercut by illegal operations."
The Gangmaster Licensing Authority (GLA) was set up after 23 illegal cocklers were killed in Morecambe Bay in February 2004.
Staff at the GLA will now check companies to make sure they are not breaking the law.
The GLA is also asking responsible gangmasters to report unlicensed companies to help clean up the industry.
One-Minute World News
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