Unite is heavily engaged in organising workers across food processing and cleaning, sectors of the economy dependent on migrant labour. The union is increasingly concerned that workers’ rights are unravelling because rogue employers exploit undocumented and unprotected workers without fear of sanction.

Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary of the T&G section of Unite, and member of the Commission on Vulnerable Employment, led the march accompanied by cleaners from the T&G’s Justice for Cleaners campaign. At the Trafalgar Square rally he said: “What the public wants is a fair and lasting solution to irregular working. It is simply not possible to hunt down and deport the hundreds of thousands of people who, for a variety of reasons, find themselves without status in this country.

“Instead of blaming migrant workers for every workplace and social misfortune, we need to tackle the real causes of exploitation. We have an immigration system that forces desperate people into the hands of the rogues, a rights framework that views agency workers as second class, and an enforcement system that allows crooks to flourish while ensuring the mistreated stay silent.

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