Exploitation Built Into the System: How the UK’s Supply Chain Depends on Migrant Abuse

April 19, 2026April 19, 2026 admin Bad Companies

In the shadows of Britain's supermarket shelves, high street fashion rails, and construction sites lies an uncomfortable truth: the UK economy is propped up by a global system of migrant worker exploitation. In 2025 alone, the Business and Human Rights Centre (BHRC) recorded 747 cases of alleged abuse of migrant workers worldwide, spanning nearly every key sector and region.

These were not isolated incidents but symptoms of a business model that channels immense profits to multinationals headquartered in wealthy nations while extracting labour from the world's most marginalised people.

Marketing and Mortality: How Nestlé’s Fake Experts in Africa Led to Infant Deaths

March 16, 2026March 16, 2026 admin Bad Companies

The intersection of corporate profit and public health has few starker examples than Nestlé's decades-long marketing of infant formula in Africa. From the 1970s to present-day controversies, the Swiss multinational has employed deceptive practices — including fake experts and misleading health claims — that have contributed to hundreds of thousands of infant deaths.

This tragic history, from the "milk nurses" of the past to modern double standards in product formulation, offers critical lessons about the dangers of allowing marketing to masquerade as medicine.

Boardroom Machiavelli: The Unspoken Corporate Playbook

January 15, 2026January 15, 2026 admin Bad Companies, Leadership

In the hallowed halls of modern corporations, between glossy sustainability reports and corporate mission statements, a colder, older philosophy often pulses through strategic decisions. Its source is a 16th-century Italian diplomat whose name became synonymous with cunning statecraft: Niccolò Machiavelli.

To understand his enduring influence, one must know his context. Machiavelli (1469-1527) was a keen observer of political chaos. Living in a fractured Italy dominated by warring city-states, foreign invasions, and corrupt popes, he witnessed power in its rawest form. After a career serving the Florentine Republic, he was exiled when the Medici family returned to power. It was in this forced retirement that he wrote Il Principe (The Prince) in 1513. Far from a dry theory, the book was a pragmatic, almost clinical manual for a new ruler on how to acquire and maintain power in a dangerous, unstable world. He famously separated political efficacy from religious or personal morality, arguing that what makes a leader successful is not always what makes them good.

Rockstar Games Layoffs to Be Investigated by UK Parliament Over Union-Busting Claims

December 14, 2025March 23, 2026 admin Bad Companies, Unfair Dismissal, Unions

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said Parliament will investigate union-busting allegations against Rockstar Games, following the studio's dismissal of 31 Grand Theft Auto 6 developers in October.

The issue was raised in Parliament on December 10 by local MP, Chris Murray. He informed the Prime Minister: "The video games company Rockstar in my constituency last month fired 31 employees without providing evidence or union representation. The [Independent Workers Union of Great Britain] IWGB alleges union busting."

Holland & Barrett Named and Shamed for National Minimum Wage Underpayments

November 1, 2025March 23, 2026 admin Bad Companies

Holland & Barrett is one of the latest major high street retailers to be named by the UK government for failing to pay its staff the National Minimum Wage. The company was listed among nearly 500 employers who have been fined a total of over £10 million for similar breaches.

The list, published by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), revealed that Holland & Barrett underpaid more than 2,551 workers a total of over £153,000. They were 9th in the list of worst offenders. The government's crackdown has ensured that 42,000 workers nationwide were repaid more than £6 million.