Modern Slavery PEC partner workstrand: Bonavero Institute of Human Rights
Labour exploitation is one of the most common purposes of modern slavery and is a broader problem affecting workers, including migrants, across the labour market in the UK and internationally. Yet many fundamental issues concerning its definition, causes, and effective state responses to prevent and remedy exploitation remain poorly understood.
A programme of research led by the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at the University of Oxford is analysing these issues to provide new insights into the dynamics of labour exploitation and legal and policy frameworks relevant for shaping responses to this phenomenon. The aim of this research is to test current understandings of labour exploitation, probe prevailing assumptions about its causes and risk factors, consider the underexplored protective factors that shield workers from exploitative situations, and assess the coherence of the UK’s response to labour exploitation across different areas of law.
The project is engaging in empirical research to improve the evidence base on labour exploitation in the three sectors where the risk of workers being subject to labour exploitation is considered to be high in the UK: hospitality, warehousing, and social care. Interviews will be conducted with key stakeholders and workers in these sectors, including those who have experienced labour exploitation, to better understand their experiences and factors that make them more or less likely to experience exploitation. The aim is to understand how experiences of labour exploitation fluctuate and change over time and what needs to be done to improve and remedy poor working conditions and prevent them from escalating into severe forms of exploitation, such as modern slavery.
Alongside the empirical research, desk-based research investigates new horizons in international and UK law and practice pertaining to labour exploitation and human rights. This includes the regulation of global supply chains and the role of non-state actors in tackling labour exploitation, the role of immigration law in both facilitating and eradicating labour exploitation, the interrelation of the Fair Work Agency, Immigration Enforcement and National Referral Mechanism, and the role of freedom of exit and labour mobility in legal prohibitions on forced labour.
Project team: Marija Jovanovic and Jack Beadsworth (University of Oxford).
Do you have experience working in warehousing, hospitality or social care in the UK?
If so, the project team would like to invite you to participate in this research.
Contact marija.jovanovic@law.ox.ac.uk or jack.beadsworth@law.ox.ac.uk for more information.
