McDonald's restaurant and major grocery chains failed to spot signs of modern slavery, BBC reports
CBSN
More than a dozen people trafficked from the Czech Republic into the U.K. were forced to work for several years in a McDonald's restaurant and a food factory supplying some of Britain's major supermarket chains, a BBC investigation has found, despite red flags that could have tipped off employers to the abuse.
A gang run by Czech brothers Ernest and Zdenek Drevenak forced 16 victims — many of whom had experienced homelessness or addiction — to work, seizing their income and controlling them with threats and violence, according to police.
The gang syphoned off most of the victims' wages, leaving them with a few pounds a day to live off in cramped accommodation, including an unheated trailer and a leaky shed, according to CBS News' partner network BBC.
