As discussed in Chapter 2, they are guaranteed a minimum of 32 hours a week at £11.44 per hour (equivalent to NLW), meaning they earn more than £360 per week. Median self-reported earnings while in the UK are£8,097 amongst those responding to the 2022 Defra Seasonal Worker Survey. Whilst this may not be sufficiently appealing compensation to encourage domestic participation in seasonal work this is a significant incentive for migrant workers travelling from poorer countries. Figure 3.6 shows the average wages in the top 6 countries of origin for seasonal workers on the visa (in 2023), alongside the guaranteed minimum earnings for undertaking seasonal work in the UK, demonstrating the clear financial incentives to the scheme. Further, as we discuss in Chapter 5, many Seasonal Workers will earn above the minimum due both to working over the minimum mandated hours and incentives such as picking bonuses.
Chapter 3: Economic and social impacts of the Seasonal Worker Scheme
During the peak season, farms have consistently reported being unable to recruit sufficient domestic workers to meet their needs, resulting in a desire to employ willing and able migrant labour. Previously, farms were able to meet their seasonal labour requirements using EU workers who were allowed under Freedom of Movement (FoM) to live and work in the UK. Confirm the future of the Seasonal Worker Scheme (SWS) – If the new government intends to meet the previous government’s objective of maintaining current levels of domestic food production, then a Seasonal Worker Scheme is required in the short-to-medium term. We continue to believe that the agricultural sector needs to explore automated options that would reduce the long-term dependency on migrant labour, and that government must play a role in promoting investments in automation.
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However, there are also long term (non-seasonal) placements between 1-4 years, allowing Seasonal Workers to apply to transfer from the short-term 9-month visa to a longterm (up to 4-year) visa while in Australia. The guidelines state that this must be for a year-round role and at the same skill level or higher, allowing employers to obtain support in more skilled roles (including for supervisory roles not included on the Skilled Occupation List). Although not technically a progression visa the US H-2A visa classification can be extended in-country for up to 3 years (in increments of up to 1-year), after which there is a 3-month ‘cooling off’ period. Employers utilise these extensions to progress workers into more skilled roles, including with supervisory responsibilities, within their occupation. In the US, for example, labour standards enforcement is the responsibility of the Department of Labor (DOL) – the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) is DOL’s primary H-2A labour enforcer and covers wages, hours, underpayment, housing and transport violations. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is also involved by offering discretionary protection to victims.
In 2025 this quota will be lowered to 45,000, reducing the maximum number of visas by a total of 12,000 including the removal of the 10,000 extension. There was no commitment from the previous government on the quota level beyond 2025, only a guarantee of the scheme’s operation until at least 2029 and an intention to reduce the quota across the period.
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We are aware that many employers value the output of seasonal workers highly, and efforts to safeguard migrant welfare were evident at several of the sites visited. As we discussed in Chapter 4, returnees are particularly valuable to employers and hence they have a business interest in ensuring workers will wish to come back. We also spoke to several Seasonal Workers who were happy with their work, pay, treatment and conditions. Of the employers who said they had domestic workers complete the recruitment process, several shared experiences of workers dropping out in the first weeks (as shown in the case study below). For example, 1 employer reported that no UK workers had stayed long enough to receive a £500 4-week retention bonus. The ‘Pick for Britain’ campaign to recruit British workers during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the difficulty of maintaining domestic workers in seasonal roles.
In instances where workers have arrived onsite with little to no money farms, rather than scheme operators, appeared to be the organisations maintaining workers, such as by providing money for food. As set out in Chapter 2, scheme operators may subcontract recruitment to partners (who must be licensed independently by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA)) in source countries or to a UK based business. The hiring process of Seasonal Workers, including the choice of source countries and the potential for recruitment fees (which are illegal in the UK) to be charged there, represent a particular risk to workers. The previous Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner suggested that the long distances involved in SWS recruitment can increase the difficulty of scrutinising recruiters. A small number of employers expressed concern about scheme operators’ role in the transfer process, given the potential to charge multiple recruitment fees without offering a refund or reduction to the employer who had lost the worker. To lessen the cost burden on employers, some suggested recruitment costs be split across employers who share employees, or that the new employer should pay.
- In an industry where a considerable amount of illegal working could exist, a seasonal worker scheme reduces the need to use illegal workers, where exploitation and negative social impacts would be greater.
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- They can also report problems to welfare reps at their scheme operators, the Good Work app, or to GLAA, although workers may not want to raise complaints with either the body in charge of their overall sponsorship or to the same body that deals with immigration crime.
- Additional pay varied across farms with some employers preferring to pay a flat rate (particularly in packing jobs) whilst other farms had pay levels up to £15 per hour or sometimes as much as £20 per hour.
GLAA may take action against the farm when there is a modern slavery offence occurring at a site located within England and Wales. Any failure on the part of the ASO to act on identified issues could lead to the SWT suspending or revoking their licence (to date no sanctions have been imposed on any ASO as a result of issues identified on farms). During 2023, 125 farms out of around 500 (around 25%) were visited by UKVI enforcement teams, including interviewing 1,116 migrants on the route (representing around 3.4% of Seasonal Workers). On some of these inspections UKVI staff are accompanied by GLAA staff who check safeguarding, complaints and information provisions. From interviews with scheme providers, employers, and Seasonal Workers, it appears that there are a number of reasons why requested transfers might not happen in practice. For example, there may not be any vacancies at the target farm; or the worker may be close enough to the end of their visa for training and starting on a new type of work not to be viable (employees typically take a few weeks to get up to speed, as discussed further in Chapter 4).
This is to facilitate informed recruitment and ensure the scheme provider is confident that people have understood the terms and conditions of the route before applying. There are pros and cons to such an approach from an employee welfare perspective, which are discussed in further detail in Chapter 5. Without the SWS, it is likely we would see a contraction in the domestic production of horticulture (and to a much lesser extent, poultry).
Examples of clustering of smaller businesses are in Herefordshire, East Anglia, Kent, the West Midlands and the east coast of Scotland. This suggests the ultimate impact on consumer welfare is likely to be limited, with price increases potentially small enough to keep consumers spending choices unchanged or meaning individuals will just substitute for imported goods. The UK is already highly reliant on imports to meet demand for fruit and vegetables with domestic production as a percentage of total supply approximately 17% for fruit and 55% for vegetables. Agricultural products have a relatively low market value while hours worked in the sector are relatively high, with workers on average working for 41 hours per week compared to the economy-wide average of 32.
