Agencies, subcontracting, and the price that's too cheap

Most organisations do not exploit anyone directly. Where they get caught out is through the layers between them and the actual worker: labour agencies, subcontractors, and suppliers chosen purely on price.

Labour agencies

Temporary labour supplied through agencies is a well documented route for exploitation, because the employer of record is separated from the place of work. A rogue agency can control workers' housing, transport, documents, and pay while the client site sees only a reliable stream of quiet, hard-working staff. Vet agencies properly: check they are legitimate, registered where required, and clear about how workers are recruited and paid. In sectors covered by licensing, such as agricultural labour supply, check the licence.

Subcontracting

Every layer of subcontracting reduces visibility. You contract a cleaning company; the cleaning company subcontracts to a smaller firm; that firm pays a gangmaster in cash. Your standards do not automatically travel down that chain unless your contracts say so and someone checks. Uncontrolled sub-subcontracting is one of the most common ways exploitation enters an otherwise responsible supply chain.

The price that's too cheap

Price is the red flag hiding in plain sight. Every legitimate service has an irreducible cost: legal wages, tax, insurance, equipment, materials. When a quote comes in dramatically below every competitor, that money is being saved somewhere, and labour is usually the largest cost to squeeze.

A hand car wash charging a few pounds for a service that takes several workers twenty minutes cannot be paying those workers legally. The same logic applies to implausibly cheap construction labour, cleaning contracts, or manufacturing quotes. "Too cheap to be legal" is a question you are allowed, and expected, to ask before you buy.

Choosing the cheapest bid without asking how the price is possible is not a neutral act. It creates the demand that exploitation supplies.