[Global] ‘Orange collar’ workers are not the answer to labour shortages

As employers all over the world face labour shortages triggered in part by the return of migrant workers to their home countries, one alternative some are reaching for is the prison system. In the UK, meat processing factories have asked the government for prisoners on day release to fill vacancies left by EU workers who have gone home, Financial Times reports.

In Malaysia, palm oil producers who usually rely upon workers from Indonesia and Bangladesh are also looking to imprisoned workers to make up their numbers. In Thailand - which has seen an exodus of migrant workers since the pandemic - the government intends to build industrial estates where companies can staff factories with inmates near the end of their sentences. 

Some might argue this use of “orange collar” workers is a win-win giving companies the labour they need and prisoners the opportunity to leave their cells to gain real work experience, which could help them secure jobs when they are released. It is a fact that people struggle to get jobs after they leave prison. An analysis of UK government data reportedly found that almost two-thirds of prisoners failed to find any paid employment in the two years after their release and only about a quarter were identified as working at the two-year mark. 

Prisoners who worked or did vocational training while in prison were more likely to be in employment shortly after release. Yet only 36 per cent of prisons in England and Wales received a positive rating from inspectors for providing “purposeful activity” to prisoners - such as work or education - in 2019-20, a decline of about 50 per cent from 2016-17. A lot of the work undertaken inside prison workshops, even for private sector companies, is reportedly poor preparation for life outside. 

Jenna Pandeli at the University of the West of England spent 10 months observing and interviewing male prisoners involved in privately contracted prison work such as breaking up electrical items for recycling, putting stickers on parcels and sorting through waste. The work was mostly boring, monotonous and low-skilled, she found. 

In fact jobs like this were vanishing from the working world outside the prison gates as they were offshored to cheaper locations. In England and Wales, the minimum pay for prisoners who work is just £4 a week. In comparison, going out to work in a meat factory would have its advantages. It would be a real job in a real workplace with non-prisoners as colleagues and it would also offer better pay. 

Prison rules in England and Wales state that prisoners working outside the prison for employers on temporary licence - although not covered by minimum wage laws - should be paid “the appropriate rate for the job at or above the national minimum wage” and shouldn’t be treated “less favourably than other workers in comparable employment”. Prisoners are only given £76 when they leave prison, and 14 per cent are homeless upon their release, enabling them to build up some savings while in prison would be useful. 

Some employers already help prisoners bridge this transition well: Timpson, for example, which provides shoe repair and key cutting services, provides training for some prisoners then employs them in good jobs on release. However, anyone using prisoners to plug labour shortages is by definition using them to do jobs that no one else wants to do. 

UK meat factory jobs often demand workers to do 12-hour shifts on their feet and offer unpredictable hours in remote locations. Such conditions were manageable for migrants who were without dependants in-country and could earn more than at home, but they do not work for people who have caring responsibilities and could work in a supermarket or café for the same money. The risk is that employers in these sectors will use prisoners as a release valve to relieve them from the pressure to make the jobs better paid or more liveable. 

This is a particular risk in countries such as the United States, where working can be compulsory for prisoners. Yet even in the UK, where prisoners do have a choice, companies would be tapping a unique labour pool without better options. Prisoners would be likely to benefit from more opportunities to work on day release which lead to decent jobs when they are released but using them as a short-term fix for labour shortages is not the way to achieve this. If employers are learning that no one wants to work for them on the terms they are offering, perhaps they should pay attention to the lesson the market is teaching them. 

Source: Financial Times

As employers all over the world face labour shortages triggered in part by the return of migrant workers to their home countries, one alternative some are reaching for is the prison system. In the UK, meat processing factories have asked the government for prisoners on day release to fill vacancies left by EU workers who have gone home, Financial Times reports.

In Malaysia, palm oil producers who usually rely upon workers from Indonesia and Bangladesh are also looking to imprisoned workers to make up their numbers. In Thailand - which has seen an exodus of migrant workers since the pandemic - the government intends to build industrial estates where companies can staff factories with inmates near the end of their sentences. 

Some might argue this use of “orange collar” workers is a win-win giving companies the labour they need and prisoners the opportunity to leave their cells to gain real work experience, which could help them secure jobs when they are released. It is a fact that people struggle to get jobs after they leave prison. An analysis of UK government data reportedly found that almost two-thirds of prisoners failed to find any paid employment in the two years after their release and only about a quarter were identified as working at the two-year mark. 

Prisoners who worked or did vocational training while in prison were more likely to be in employment shortly after release. Yet only 36 per cent of prisons in England and Wales received a positive rating from inspectors for providing “purposeful activity” to prisoners - such as work or education - in 2019-20, a decline of about 50 per cent from 2016-17. A lot of the work undertaken inside prison workshops, even for private sector companies, is reportedly poor preparation for life outside. 

Jenna Pandeli at the University of the West of England spent 10 months observing and interviewing male prisoners involved in privately contracted prison work such as breaking up electrical items for recycling, putting stickers on parcels and sorting through waste. The work was mostly boring, monotonous and low-skilled, she found. 

In fact jobs like this were vanishing from the working world outside the prison gates as they were offshored to cheaper locations. In England and Wales, the minimum pay for prisoners who work is just £4 a week. In comparison, going out to work in a meat factory would have its advantages. It would be a real job in a real workplace with non-prisoners as colleagues and it would also offer better pay. 

Prison rules in England and Wales state that prisoners working outside the prison for employers on temporary licence - although not covered by minimum wage laws - should be paid “the appropriate rate for the job at or above the national minimum wage” and shouldn’t be treated “less favourably than other workers in comparable employment”. Prisoners are only given £76 when they leave prison, and 14 per cent are homeless upon their release, enabling them to build up some savings while in prison would be useful. 

Some employers already help prisoners bridge this transition well: Timpson, for example, which provides shoe repair and key cutting services, provides training for some prisoners then employs them in good jobs on release. However, anyone using prisoners to plug labour shortages is by definition using them to do jobs that no one else wants to do. 

UK meat factory jobs often demand workers to do 12-hour shifts on their feet and offer unpredictable hours in remote locations. Such conditions were manageable for migrants who were without dependants in-country and could earn more than at home, but they do not work for people who have caring responsibilities and could work in a supermarket or café for the same money. The risk is that employers in these sectors will use prisoners as a release valve to relieve them from the pressure to make the jobs better paid or more liveable. 

This is a particular risk in countries such as the United States, where working can be compulsory for prisoners. Yet even in the UK, where prisoners do have a choice, companies would be tapping a unique labour pool without better options. Prisoners would be likely to benefit from more opportunities to work on day release which lead to decent jobs when they are released but using them as a short-term fix for labour shortages is not the way to achieve this. If employers are learning that no one wants to work for them on the terms they are offering, perhaps they should pay attention to the lesson the market is teaching them. 

Source: Financial Times