Gangmasters and monopsony power

How many gangmasters are there operating in the UK? Does the Licensing Authority really have a proper handle on the scale of workers being organised and often exploited by gangmaster businesses? I was discussing this issue of monospony in my A2 revision presentations at London and Manchester in the last week. It is I feel one of the really important aspects of market failure in a largely deregulated labour market.

The BBC reports that “a gangmaster has been stripped of his licence after investigators uncovered a “disgraceful story of forced labour” amongst migrant workers in Scotland.” The government has introduced a licensing scheme for gangmasters - partly as a consequence of the awful events that unfolded for the Chinese cocklepickers on Morecambe Bay (captured superbly in Nick Broomfield’s recent film “Ghosts”).