Companies adopt new fair labour framework for the UK’s construction industry
19 October 2026
International construction company Multiplex and the property development and investment firm GPE are the first companies to publicly adopt the Labour Agency Vendor Accord (LAVA), an industry-led framework raising the bar for safe, fair and ethical labour practices in the UK’s construction industry.
Championed by the Institute for Human Rights and Business, the Labour Agency Vendor Accord (LAVA) was developed to support organisations in assessing, managing, and improving workers’ rights, wellbeing and safety throughout the UK’s built environment sectors.
Gordon Miller, UK Programme Manager, Built Environment, Institute for Human Rights and Business, said:
“Cities and homes aren’t built by policy: they’re built by people who have a right to decent, safe and reliable work. As housing tops the political agenda, there is growing demand for better resources to help companies stamp out unsafe, unfair and unethical labour practices, including to minimise the risk of modern slavery in the UK’s built environment supply chains.
“Multiplex and GPE have become the first companies to pilot LAVA in their Modern Slavery Statements - in a promising first step for this pioneering framework which sets out to improve outcomes for the UK’s built environment workers and the communities they build for.”
About LAVA:
The Labour Agency Vendor Accord (LAVA) provides a practical set of criteria to support organisations to assess, manage, and improve decent work, fair pay, health and wellbeing and workers’ voice across construction and retrofit value chains in the built environment. Featuring guidance and a standardised reporting grid for measurement, LAVA builds on international human rights standards and practical industry experience, to respond to growing demand for tools that complement and go beyond existing compliance processes.
Developed in 2012 as part of the regeneration of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the LAVA was re-catalysed in 2025 by the companies, investors, policymakers, civil society organisations and unions that are part of the UK Built Environment Just Transitions Accelerator (BEJTA UK) LAVA Working Group, convened by IHRB.
About IHRB’s Built Environment Just Transitions Accelerators (BEJTA):
IHRB’s Built Environment Just Transitions Accelerators (BEJTA) are collaborative spaces for diverse groups of stakeholders in Denmark, Spain, and the UK to embed human rights into decarbonisation initiatives. Bringing together civil society organisations, policymakers and businesses, the accelerators advance business practice and influence policy,
