News is reaching Spa Business from a number of highly reputable sources about employment practices in parts of the spa and resorts industry which amount to modern slavery and human trafficking.

Spa therapists, mainly women, are being recruited from third world countries by agents who charge them a huge fee to secure jobs in high-end hotels and resorts as therapists.

In exchange, the agents then take away their passports and take a cut of their earnings until such time as their ‘debt’ has been discharged. We are hearing of ‘fees’ for placements of up to US$10,000 against earnings of US$400/month, meaning these women are being tied in to years of being ‘farmed’ for cash while being unable to escape, due to the confiscation of their passports.

We understand that hotel and spa operators are not directly involved in the transactions by which these people are procured, but that they take the staff from the agents for free without question – effectively turning a blind eye.

The spa industry has grappled with many reputational challenges over the years, such as the link to prostitution and the sex trade, and it appears that this horrible link to modern slavery is the next frontier on which we must fight the forces that would undermine us.

We already know the industry has a tendency to exploit women, particularly those who are from less well educated backgrounds and who do not have the power to control their own destinies. They are often worked too hard and paid too little by operators in pursuit of profits.

This unfairness is not confined to the developing world. We know of operators in Europe, the UK and the US who routinely overwork and massively underpay therapists, while generating huge returns for shareholders.

This is a continuum, with overworked therapists at one end and modern slavery at the other, and until something is done to rid the industry of this exploitation, our reputation as a sector from both a corporate standpoint and as an employer will continue to suffer.

Hotel, spa and resort operators must step up and take responsibility for this situation. If staff are being offered by an agent for free, then someone is paying and questions need to be asked about who that is.

We need to build an industry on firm and fair foundations and not on human misery and exploitation.