New scheme set to tackle ‘modern slavery’ in hand car washes

A new regulatory scheme will be introduced to car washes in a bid to crack down on unacceptable working conditions for employees.

The Responsible Car Wash scheme will audit car washes and ensure they’re conforming to regulations, after the UK Modern Slavery Helpline received almost 500 reports of potential labour exploitation in car washes across the UK last year.

Research by the University of Nottingham and the Office of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner also found that even in sites that don’t run on ‘slave labour’, the average wage for a day’s work is just £40.

The scheme will be piloted in November and, should it prove successful, car washes which have undergone an audit and been found to be responsible will be able to display a logo marking them as such. This should allow motorists to choose a car wash that’s both safe and ethical.

Car washes will need to show that their staff are paid the correct minimum wage and work in safe and ethical conditions.

Sites will be judged not only on working conditions, but also environmental responsibility – following a report by the Environmental Audit Committee which found that waste chemicals from car washes can contain phosphates, oils, and metal fragments. These can harm biodiversity and negatively affect local water quality.

Hand car washes are a common sight across the UK, often in supermarket forecourts and parking garages. Cheap and convenient, it’s estimated that there’s anywhere between 10,000 and 20,000 operating in the UK – some more legitimately than others.

However, in June the Environmental Audit Committee heard that a car wash costing less than £6 could be funding modern slavery, as the cost of staff would make such a price unsustainable at normal minimum wages.

The new scheme should help prevent this and is being supported by Waves, one of the country’s largest hand car wash operators. A spokesperson for the company said: “We have a robust and stringent training and auditing process to prevent the exploitation of workers, and a full-time national team committed to ensuring our practices are followed on every site.”