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Worker wellbeing programmes in construction: why action matters now

Construction remains one of the highest-risk sectors for labour exploitation. Complex subcontracting models, tight delivery timelines, and intense cost pressures can obscure responsibility for workers and allow harmful practices to go unnoticed. These risks are not theoretical, they play out on real sites, affecting real people. 

For clients, contractors, and developers, worker wellbeing programmes are no longer optional or purely compliance driven. Delivered through structured site visits and direct engagement with workers, they are essential to protecting workers, safeguarding projects, and maintaining trust in an increasingly scrutinised sector.

Understanding the risk

Construction projects often involve long and fragmented supply chains, where accountability for labour conditions becomes diluted as work moves through multiple subcontractors. The sector’s reliance on migrant, temporary, and self-employed workers increases vulnerability, particularly where individuals feel unable to raise concerns or challenge unfair treatment. 

When commercial pressures prioritise speed and cost over worker welfare, exploitation can take hold and remain hidden. Without proactive worker wellbeing programmes and meaningful site engagement, organisations face significant and escalating risks, including: 

  • Legal and regulatory non-compliance. 
  • Workforce instability and project disruption. 
  • Reputational damage and loss of client confidence. 
  • Reduced productivity and quality due to unsafe or unfair working conditions. 

 

These risks not only impact workers, but project delivery, commercial outcomes, and long-term business resilience. 

Why worker wellbeing programmes make a difference

Effective worker wellbeing programmes bring visibility to what is happening on site and across the supply chain. Through structured worker wellbeing site visits, organisations can identify risks early, ensure labour standards are upheld, and reinforce accountability from client to subcontractor. 

High quality site visits go beyond documentation and checklists. Direct, respectful engagement creates space for workers to speak openly about their experiences, surfaces issues that formal processes often miss, and allows concerns to be addressed before they escalate into serious harm. 

When workers feel safe, respected, and fairly treated, the benefits are clear: stronger morale, improved retention, fewer delays, and more resilient project delivery. 

From policy to practice

Policies alone do not protect workers. Real change happens when commitments are translated into action on site. Strong worker wellbeing programmes support: 

  • Clear accountability, with clients and main contractors taking responsibility for labour conditions throughout the supply chain. 
  • Fair pay, secure contracts, and prompt payment as standard practice. 
  • Trusted reporting pathways that workers feel confident using. 
  • Awareness and education, enabling workers to understand their rights and raise concerns safely. 

Worker welfare must be treated as a core measure of project success, alongside cost, quality, and delivery, not as an afterthought once problems emerge. 

Unseen’s approach: ethical, person-centred, informed by experience

At Unseen, our site visits are rooted in a deep respect for people and an understanding of the profound impact that modern slavery and labour abuse can have on an individual’s life. Shaped and reviewed by those with lived experience, our person-centred, trauma-informed approach ensures dignity, safety, and trust are at the heart of every visit. By meeting workers on site and listening to their voices, we deliver visits that are meaningful, responsive, and aligned with the real needs of rights holders. 

Act before harm occurs

Labour risks that are missed today can become legal, financial, and reputational crises tomorrow. Organisations that act early, embedding robust worker wellbeing programmes into their projects are better placed to protect workers, maintain operational stability, and meet the expectations of clients, regulators, and investors. 

Now is the time to take a proactive approach

If you are committed to ethical construction and want assurance that worker welfare is genuinely protected across your supply chain, Unseen’s worker wellbeing programmes can help you take meaningful action before risk becomes harm.

Discover what our site visits achieved in 2025. Complete the form below to access a summary and connect with an Unseen consultant to explore how we can safeguard your workforce today.   

Contact the team: [email protected] or learn more about Unseen business services. 

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Justine Currell

As I came to understand more about the issue, including through a visit to an Unseen safehouse, I knew I needed to do more to stop this abuse and exploitation.

For the last five years of my Civil Service career, I was the Modern Slavery Senior Policy Advisor in the Home Office and led on development of the Modern Slavery Act, including the transparency in supply chains provision and business guidance.

I joined Unseen to lead the development of the Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline, and Unseen’s work with businesses. I am regularly called upon to present at national and international conferences and use my experience of working with Ministers to influence other governments internationally to take action to address modern slavery and, in particular, business supply chain issues.

In my spare time I enjoy keeping fit, music, reading and travelling.

Andrew Wallis

What ultimately compelled me to act was a report on how people from Eastern Europe were being trafficked through Bristol airport to the USA. Kate Garbers, who went on to be an Unseen Director, and I wrote to all the city councillors, MPs and the Police Chief Constable challenging them on the issue. The challenge came back to us: this city needs safe housing for trafficked women. And so Unseen began.

But we never wanted Unseen to be just about safe housing. We wanted to end slavery once and for all, and that remains our driving focus.

I chaired the working group for the Centre for Social Justice’s landmark report “It Happens Here: Equipping the United Kingdom to Fight Modern Slavery”. This is now acknowledged as the catalyst behind the UK’s Modern Slavery Act of 2015. It was a great honour to be awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours that year. On the other hand, I’ve also been described as “the loveliest disrupter you could ever hope to meet”.

This job has taken me from building flat-pack furniture for safehouses, to working with businesses to address slavery in supply chains, to delivering training, raising awareness and advising governments around the world.

When not at work, I enjoy travelling, spending time with my dog Harley, cooking, supporting Liverpool and Yorkshire CC, music (I’m a former DJ) and endurance events such as the Three Peaks Challenge and Tribe Freedom Runs – which I vow never to do again. Until the next time.