Hand car washes are to be investigated by MPs, after the Environment Audit Committee announced it is to launch a probe into working practices and environmental impacts.
Concerns over workers being forced into “bonded labour” by hand car washes are partly behind the inquiry, while issues surrounding the environmental effects caused by the chemicals the businesses use are also to be investigated.
Mary Creagh, who chairs the Environment Audit Committee, told the BBC: “We have environmental concerns, we have employment concerns, we have slavery concerns".
Creagh said concerns over hand car washes were catalysed by the death of a Romanian car wash worker, who was electrocuted when taking a shower at lodgings adjacent to the east London car wash at which he was working in 2017. Police described his living conditions as "dilapidated, cramped [and] rat-infested". The owner of his car wash was jailed in 2017 for four years for manslaughter by gross negligence.
Creagh explained the Committee’s aim was to “get a place where the public can have confidence that if they are using a hand car wash, they are not contributing to modern slavery. If it only costs a fiver, it may be a slave driver."
Dawn Fraser, head of the Car Wash Advisory Service, told the BBC: "The majority of firms do not pay a legitimate wage, but that is because it is just not being enforced."
Environmental concerns are another issue for hand car washes, which, like automatic car washes, are subject to regulations and permits concerning how they handle and store chemicals. "The problem is right across the board, it is not just the hand car-wash firms,” Fraser added.
The Car Wash Advisory Service estimates there are between 10,000 and 20,000 hand car washes in the UK, and that of those, roughly 8,000 “bad boys” are engaged in criminal activity.
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