What is labor exploitation?

Labor exploitation is when someone, most often a supervisor, benefits from the work effort of another person. It can be when a person is tricked to accept a job with false information about wages and work hours, circumstances, and housing. Perpetrators use deceit and threats to prevent the victim from seeking help or stop working for them.

Labor exploitation is the most common manifestation of human trafficking in Iceland and it can happen anywhere. The most common places are in construction, cleaning, and other service jobs, such as hotels and restaurants. Labor exploitation can be the case if:

• Your supervisor makes you work long hours without having a choice.
• You live in unacceptable housing with several individuals.
• Your supervisor threatens to have you deported if you don’t do as he says.
• Your supervisor threatens you or your family with violence if you don’t do as he says.
• You don’t get paid for cleaning the house or other service jobs you do extra.
• Your supervisor adds a location tracking app into your phone to watch your every step, against your will.

Labor rights

ASÍ is the head organization for labor workers in Iceland and provides the website labour.is, where workers can seek information on duties and rights in the work market in 11 languages: English, Polish, Lithuanian, Romanian, Spanish, Farsi, Ukrainian, Arabic and Icelandic.

ASÍ also has the goal of workplace surveillance to fight labor exploitation and inform workers on their rights. Inspectors visit workplaces and often they are the first contact of a worker being exploited. You can email them at asi@asi.is, where full confidentiality is promised.