Salad days; Gangmasters.(The boom in gangmastering)

Economist (US), The, November, 2004

The gangmaster, a flourishing relic

How 21st-century-style shopping means more 19th-century-style work

WHEN 19 Chinese immigrants drowned while picking cockles in Morecambe Bay in February, outrage was quickly followed by a new law. The Gangmasters Bill and a code of practice for gangmasters, launched in the House of Lords later this month, are both aimed at labour-providers, or gangmasters. The targets of the bill are those who operate outside the law, often using illegal immigrants, paying their workers little and the taxman less. But many politicians are also uncomfortable with the legal side of the business, which involves lots of immigrants working through the night, often for [pounds sterling]4.85 ($9) an hour (the minimum wage), moving from...