Campaign Against Prison Slavery – Virgin Atlantic Headsets
Many imprisoned people consider ‘work’ in prison to be a form of slave labour. The strong sense of exploitation imprisoned workers experience is due to: (1) feeling compelled rather than choosing to work (jobs provide out-of-cell/socialising time and is one of the few ways to avoid being locked up for 23 hours a day); (2) the low level of pay (an average of £1.50 per two hour session), and (3) the lack of labour rights (prisoners have no voice as workers and those who seek to organise can quickly find themselves dismissed and/or moved wing/prison). Within such exploitative conditions, the notion that prison jobs are ‘purposeful activities’ that contribute to a person’s ‘rehabilitation’ is morally reprehensible. Particularly, when such activities/jobs involve private companies with a profit motive.
The captive workforce and exploitative labour conditions within prisons offers companies opportunities to cut costs and increase profits. Behind the liberal façade of prisoner rehabilitation, prison jobs provide capital with unwilling workers to undertake meaningless tasks, at rates of pay no other class of workers will do. It is essential that we break the silence on private companies that are profiteering from prisons and imprisoned workers. In this article, we shine a light on the ways Virgin Atlantic1 are exploiting prison labour to further boost profits.
IWW/IWOC Members Speak Out!
Several members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) / Incarcerated Workers Organising Committee (IWOC) have spoken out about the exploitative working conditions in the prison:
“Virgin Atlantic are also in the prison. So them headphones you get on the flights, the cheap ones, after a flight they get bagged and then sent here. We have to de-tangle them, put new earmuffs on, check them and re-wrap them and then send them back You have to stand for the whole two hours while you’re there. The pay is £1.25 in the morning and afternoon so £2.50 for 4 and half hours. So, £11.25 for the week, for 20 hours’ worth of work!!”
“I have been on that wing and been in the work shop. So, you think making us stand in a workshop for 2 hours in morning and 2 in the afternoon for about £3-4 is rehabilitation? It is so funny these big companies making millions off slave trade once again.”
Fly with exploitation airlines
Prison jobs – activities or work?
The HMP Swaleside ‘Activities Policy 2024-2025’ document (received following a Freedom of Information [FOI] request), states: “Jobs within HMP Swaleside are referred to as “activities” to ensure there is understanding that the “jobs” and education allocations are part of a sentence plan to aid in reducing reoffending. The money that men receive while attending activities is considered an incentive to engage in these activities and is not to be considered a wage for completing tasks in the workshops or activity areas.” The doublespeak contained within Swaleside’s Activities Policy deliberately seeks to distort the meaning of the words ‘job’ and ‘work.’ Re-defining work as activities, re-defines prison jobs as non-work and therefore imprisoned workers as non-workers, without the rights and protections of employees. The prison’s doublespeak ultimately aims to make the truth more palatable, the truth being: prison jobs are undertaken in exploitative conditions and prisoners grossly underpaid for the work they do.
The ‘Activities Policy’ goes on to outline that “In most circumstances a full working week will be defined as 9 sessions attended over the course of 1 week.” And that “Some off wing work is available on a part time basis e.g. food packing and headphones.” A document titled ‘Current activities at HMP Swaleside 2025 to 2025’ (received via FOI request) lists the session rate for the different activities in the prison. The highest paid job in the prison is kitchen workers who receive £2.75 a session. This is followed by approx. 20 jobs that receive £2.35 per session. Listed close to the bottom of the list is ‘headphones’ at £1.25 per session (or 62p an hour). This is one of the lowest ‘incentive rates’ listed in the document.
In response to an FOI question, HMP Swaleside provided ‘a description of the work undertaken’ during the headphones activity. This stated prisoners ‘refurbish headphones for an external company – MNH. The headphones are sorted, cleaned and refurbished for use on Virgin Airways.’
Further information obtained via a second FOI request showed that there “is not a set figure for the number of prisoners employed in the [headphone] workshop as it fluctuates.” However, in April 2025 there were “currently 23 prisoners allocated to work in the headphones workshop and the maximum number of prisoners that can be allocated is 31.”
The FOI also revealed that there “is not a set figure for the number of headphones that are refurbished in each session as it fluctuates and depends on how many prisoners attend each session, however on average the workshop refurbishes between 400 and 700 headphones per session.” This amounts to 3,600-6,300 headphones per week.
The FOI goes on to say that the “rehabilitative aims include: to gain purposeful employment and to focus on enhancing employability skills such as, reliability, timekeeping, teamwork, communication and adaptability.”
MNH Sustainable Cabin Services / Virgin Atlantic
MNH Sustainable Cabin Services / ROTIX promotes itself as offering ‘Airline Performance Management Solutions,’ including supporting Inflight Service Teams for many of the world’s largest airlines. One service it offers is ‘Headset Service Chain Programmes.’ In a case study published on their website, MNH state that they have worked with Virgin Atlantic on headset refurbishment for over 15 years. The challenge they faced was improving ‘their inflight customer experience with the best quality Headset, but needed a cost neutral solution that also delivered on their zero landfill objectives.’ This they have sought to achieve by developing a headset that can be refurbished multiple times and a system of refurbishing while ‘maximising savings in both supply chains.’
The case study provides no explicit information about where or by who the headsets are refurbished, other than to state they provide ‘meaningful employment and rehabilitation for deserving sectors of the community.’ We can assume, given the experiences outlined above, that these ‘deserving sectors of the community’ are imprisoned workers in Swaleside, and potentially other prisons across England.
The case study notes that MNH not only delivered savings on Virgin Atlantic’s headset spend but also benefited the company by diverting ‘tons of onboard cabin waste from landfill’ and ‘working with disadvantaged sectors of the community of the community.’ In this way, MNH boast that they have boosted Virgin Atlantic profits, reduced their cabin wastage and helped them to fulfil their social responsibility objectives. All of which suggests that Virgin Atlantic is pursuing profits and marginally reducing its carbon footprint through the exploitation of prison labour at a distance. The doublespeak contained with MNH’s case study frame prison workers as a ‘deserving’ and ‘disadvantaged’ sector of the community receiving ‘meaningful employment and rehabilitation.’ IWW/IWOC members’ experiences in Swaleside, outlined above, prove that these are exploited workers paid a pittance to do monotonous and demoralising jobs.
Boycott Virgin Atlantic!
Aircraft cabin waste contributes to Virgin Atlantic’s financial costs and carbon emissions. Headphones/headsets used on planes represent a significant percentage of airlines’ cabin costs/waste. Refurbishing headphones both cuts costs and marginally reduces their carbon emissions. Virgin Atlantic’s headsets are now ‘made with sustainability front of mind’ to improve the brand’s image among climate change conscious consumers seeking to alleviate their flight shame. Yet this article has shown that the refurbishment labour that makes cabin headsets more sustainable – the untangling of wires, putting earmuffs on, testing them, repacking them – is done by exploited prisoners. Anyone who flies “more sustainably” with Virgin Atlantic is implicated in modern day prison slavery. It’s time to boycott Virgin Atlantic and the Virgin Group for their use of exploited prison labour. The Virgin Group, which Virgin Atlantic is a part of, has revenue of over £16 billion per annum yet prisoners who refurbish their cabin headsets are paid little more than 60p an hour.
We need to send a message to companies profiteering off imprisoned people’s labour. We need to fight back against the idea that work behind bars is a part of a person’s rehabilitation. Work is work, and prisoners should be fairly paid and have rights like workers on the outside. IWOC organises for a world without prisons, but while they exist we will struggle to improve the working conditions of those imprisoned by the State. Companies that take advantage of the misery and boredom of people in prison need to be held to account, protested and boycotted.
1 Virgin Atlantic were contacted for comment on the claims made in this article, but no response was received before publication.
