What do you really see when you visit hand carwashes in Britain? Exploited workers and criminality
W hat’s the reality of your local hand carwash? Would you be surprised if it was exploiting its workers, discharging effluent illegally or not paying business rates? Statistically, at least one or all of these could be happening at an estimated 5,000-plus sites across the UK.
Visiting these sites, you are often presented with workers dressed in tracksuit bottoms and hoodies regardless of the weather, with the (infrequent) wearing of wellies being the only concession to PPE. Closer inspection will probably show filthy toilets and cold, chaotic “rest areas’’ that workers share with chemicals and other detritus.
In some cases, there are also indicators that workers are living on site. Hand carwashes are found at a variety of locations including retail sites, pub car parks, petrol stations, disused plots of land and, in a recent case, a front garden in a residential property. Structural conditions vary, but they are often visibly run down and unsafe.
Other issues include noncompliance such as lack of planning permission, non-payment of business rates, no insurance (employers’ or public), health and safety risks, illegal discharge of trade effluent and noncompliance with trading standards.
The evidence is extensive and provides a compelling argument for meaningful change and raising standards. Why, then, does the sector continue to rank as one of the most problematic in terms of labour exploitation and other forms of criminality?
The answer to this question lies in the fact that there is little fear of oversight or sanction. Our research at the Responsible Car Wash Scheme (RCWS), conducted with Nottingham Trent University’s Work, Informalisation and Place research centre with input from local police, councils and the Gangmasters
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