Explore what conversations with workers revealed about labour practices on construction sites, drawing on insights from Unseen’s 2025 site visits to highlight key issues affecting workers.
Construction sites rely on complex labour arrangements, layered subcontracting and short project timeframes. For those with responsibility for sustainability, legal compliance, procurement, ESG, social value and human rights, understanding how these arrangements affect workers in practice is not always straightforward.
In 2025, Unseen carried out 29 worker wellbeing visits across multiple sectors, speaking confidentially with 241 workers. These visits created space for workers to share their experiences of recruitment, contracting, and working arrangements.
This article focuses on the visits carried out within the construction sector and the insights shared by workers on site.
Workers shared insight into how labour practices are experienced day to day and where a gap in clarity or consistency can leave people uncertain or unsupported.
Why Unseen’s worker wellbeing site visits uncover hidden risks
Much of what organisations rely on to understand labour practices is desk-based. Policies, contracts and supplier information are important, but they do not always reflect how processes are understood or experienced on site. Within the construction sector in particular, complex subcontracting arrangements, high levels of self-employment and an internationally recruited workforce increases the risk of modern slavery and make these issues harder to identify.
Speaking directly with workers helps bridge that gap. When delivered through an independent third party, site visits can create the space needed for more open and honest conversations. Asking the right questions helps bring potential indicators of modern slavery and labour exploitation into view. It also helps providing a clearer picture of how recruitment works in practice, whether contractual terms are understood, and how workers access support on site.
Key findings from construction site visits in 2025
- 79% had limited or no awareness of how to raise concerns anonymously via whistleblowing or other grievance routes.
Limited awareness of anonymous concern-raising routes increases the risk that issues go unreported and unaddressed.
- 51% shared that right to work checks were limited or not conducted when they started their role.
This causes a reduced oversight at the point of both recruitment or site entry, increasing the likelihood that exploitative or illegal working arrangements stay hidden.
- 64% shared that no written work agreement is in place.
The absence of a written agreement can leave workers unclear about their terms, pay, employment rights and responsibilities.
- 12% experienced language barriers where contracts and/or policies were not available in any other language than English.
Where contracts or policies are only available in English, language barriers can limit workers’ understanding of their rights, terms and available support, reducing their ability to access help when needed.
- 5% reported that pay deductions on their payslip were unclear and/or could not be verified.
Where pay deductions are not clearly identified or explained, workers may struggle to understand their pay, check its accuracy or raise concerns when something does not seem right.
- 57% were recruited through informal routes such as friends or family.
Informal recruitment routes are common within the construction sector and are not an issue in themselves. However, when combined with other gaps identified, they can add an additional layer of risk by reducing clarity around employment arrangements and limiting oversight at the point of recruitment.
The identified gaps align with our findings from site visits carried out in 2024, suggesting that these challenges continue to affect workers across the construction sector. At the same time, the findings point to clear opportunities for improvement. By acting on what workers have shared, organisations can strengthen how labour practices, worker engagement and routes to support operate in practice on site.
Download Unseen’s worker wellbeing in construction guide with practical key recommendations to address gaps highlighted by workers’ experiences.
How worker site visits align with the TISC guidance
The UK’s Transparency in Supply Chains (TISC) guidance sets out expectations for how organisations should report on steps taken to address modern slavery under section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
The guidance highlights the importance of meaningful worker engagement, the use of relevant expertise, and transparency in how modern slavery risks are identified, assessed and addressed. Worker wellbeing site visits can support these expectations in practice by providing insight into how processes operate on site and how they are experienced by workers across construction supply chains.
Stakeholder and worker engagement to understand risk
The TISC guidance highlights that assessment of modern slavery risk should not rely solely on desk-based information. It emphasises engagement with relevant stakeholders, including workers, as a means of understanding how risks may arise and be experienced in practice.1
- Worker wellbeing site visits provide a structured, trauma-informed approach to engaging directly with workers on site. They help gathering information on areas such as recruitment, contractual arrangements, pay practices, working conditions and access to support.
Use of relevant expertise and operation of grievance mechanisms
The guidance requires organisations to provide evidence of grievance mechanisms for workers, or other ways in which workers can report concerns and access remedy, across core business operations, subcontractors and the wider supply chain. It also places emphasis on understanding how such mechanisms operate in practice.2
- Independent, third-party engagement with workers through wellbeing site visits can provide insight into workers’ awareness and use of reporting routes, including whistleblowing mechanisms and other forms of support.
Transparency in reporting worker engagement and due diligence activities
The TISC guidance outlines how organisations may report on worker engagement and other due diligence activities within their modern slavery statements, including how engagement informs risk identification and organisational response.3
- Worker wellbeing site visits can be referenced as part of how organisations explain the steps they take to identify and address modern slavery risks across their supply chains.
Find further information on the TISC guidance and practical ways to meet its requirements.
Read more about the most recent TISC updates and what this means for businesses.
From insights to actions
Unseen’s worker wellbeing site visits offer an opportunity to move beyond understanding risk on paper and to explore how processes operate in practice on site. The visits consider modern slavery and labour exploitation risks alongside workers’ wider experiences of recruitment, work and access to support, recognising how these factors are closely connected.
Supported by lived experience input, the visits are designed to ensure that the right questions are asked of workers in a safe and trauma-informed way. This approach helps to build a clearer picture of where systems are working well, where gaps remain, and how risks may be emerging across both internal operations and wider supply chains.
Get in touch if you would like to discuss how expert led worker wellbeing site visits could support your organisation or how they can complement existing approaches to modern slavery due diligence and reporting.
1 Transparency in supply chains Section 3.2 – “Assessing and managing risk” (pp. 10–12)
2 Transparency in supply chains Section 3.3 – “Monitoring effectiveness” (pp. 12–14)
3 Transparency in supply chains Model disclosure framework – Due diligence disclosures (pp. 37–40)