A new ruling by the UK Supreme Court can help businesses understand what the term ‘modern slavery’ means, an expert has said.
The Supreme Court explored the term, and practices such as forced labour and human trafficking which are covered by that phrase, in a recent case concerning rights to diplomatic immunity.
Neil Carslaw of Pinsent Masons was commenting after the Supreme Court ruled that a Saudi diplomat cannot rely on diplomatic immunity to defeat claims brought before an employment tribunal in the UK against him.
Carslaw said: “Modern slavery is an umbrella term and the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and this judgment provides a useful insight of interpretations and definitions of key terms – slavery; forced labour; servitude and human trafficking – and explores how each concept is defined in international law.”
The case before the UK Supreme Court concerned an ongoing dispute between Philippines national Josephine Wong and Saudi diplomat Khalid Basfar. Wong was previously employed in Basfar’s diplomatic household in Saudi Arabia and was brought to the UK in August 2016 to work in a similar capacity.
Wong’s employment by Basfar ended on 24 May 2018. Thereafter she brought a claim in the employment tribunal in respect of unlawful deductions of wages and failure to comply with the law relating to working time and the national minimum wage, which arose from the alleged exploitative conduct. Basfar did not admit the facts alleged and...
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