Several employers reported enhanced payments, including for additional responsibility, performance bonuses and for overtime/night shifts. Of the employers responding to our CfE, many said that not being able to recruit the number of Seasonal Workers they wanted would have considerable impact on their business. Employers commonly said they would have to reduce production levels to match certainty in labour supply in this scenario. The NFU reported in 2022 that 56% of members they surveyed had said they were having to reduce production levels as result of labour supply issues. One ornamental employer, visited as part of the research, reported that they had cancelled contracts with retailers because they were unable to guarantee labour.
- The 2022 Defra Seasonal Workers survey found that 61% self- reported working in the UK for over 5 months, 20% for 4 to 5 months and the remaining workers less than 4 months.
- As labour market tests delay recruitment, the requirement to demonstrate active efforts to recruit British workers therefore seems to be a pragmatic alternative.
- 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).
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If they abscond in order to claim asylum from elsewhere, they enter the asylum system and cannot be employed, as asylum seekers cannot normally work in the UK, and therefore lose access to both work and employer-provided accommodation. 74% of transfers occur exclusively within England, whilst there are very few transfers from Wales (0.5% of all transfers to and from Wales) or Northern Ireland (3.8% of all transfers to and from Northern Ireland), reflecting the overall small number of Seasonal Workers there. Just over half of Scotland’s transfers were to England, with most of the remainder transferring to another farm in Scotland. As shown in Figure 4.5, the total number of transfers occurring on the scheme between Q and Q is 13,558, equivalent to 19% of the total number of Seasonal Workers employed in this period (although some may have transferred multiple times).
Chapter 2: How the Seasonal Work Visa works
Whilst this may not be massively detrimental to the UKeconomy due to agriculture’s relatively low economic contribution, it risks harming the nation’s food security in the future – the scheme is important if existing levels of domestic food production are to be maintained. For businesses to incur costs investing in technology that will have long-term benefits they require a level of certainty that the business will remain viable when the benefits are realised. Defra’s automation in horticulture review argues that the year-to-year confirmation of the SWS has acted as a disincentive to farmers to invest in automation.
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Workers also described being threatened with deportation, or “blacklisting” from future work if they reported it, with some supervisors being described as “untouchable” and “heavy-handed” with management. Figure 3.4 shows that agriculture ranks poorly in output per hours worked compared against other industries.
It draws on data as well as evidence provided by various stakeholders including farm users of the scheme and seasonal workers themselves. In the dynamic and multicultural landscape of the UK, the demand for certified document translation services is imperative. Legal compliance and official recognition are chief among the reasons for requiring certified translations. Legal documents such as contracts, affidavits, and court transcripts necessitate precision in translation to ensure validity in the UK’s legal system. Moreover, for individuals and businesses engaging in international affairs, accurate translations are paramount for effective communication, ensuring the seamless flow of information across linguistic boundaries.
Guidance permits some averaging of hours within pay periods, e.g., fortnightly or monthly and therefore employers who had a longer pay period were better able to match working hours with demand for labour. Several employers also said they provided between hours per week across the season and that this rule did not impact their pay calculations, however, there was little support for increasing the minimum. As a positive, certain employers expressed that the hours requirement had made them more conscious of the number of workers they recruit. It therefore appears this rule is sensible in supporting workers to secure minimum guaranteed pay (see Chapter 5) and promoting responsible use of migrant labour among employers on the route.
In russian translation of weekly articles in the uk , during a ‘farm to fork summit’ the then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, made a commitment in response to this to broadly maintain current food production levels where the UK produces c.60% of all the food it requires. At a speech to the National Farmers’ Union conference in February 2024, he vowed to focus on food security and outlined plans for an annual Food Security Index, with a focus on specific produce e.g., that 15% of all tomatoes are produced domestically). As shown in Figure 1.5 below, in recent years there has been an increase in the proportion of the casual workforce on the Seasonal Worker Visa (SWV). At the same time, since 2019 total employment of seasonal, casual or gang labour has been consistent.
IRIS is the International Organisation for Migration’s initiative to promote ethical recruitment of migrant workers. Raising complaints should be simple, and sponsor guidance sets out the need to ensure workers know how to and are able to report a concern. Both theaccommodation standards and how these are to be monitored and enforced should be clarified.
As discussed in Chapters 2 and 4, scheme operators may certify that they will maintain the worker during their first month as an alternative to the worker having the required £1,270. Producers we spoke to said it was unrealistic for Seasonal Workers to have such a sum and in practise often work with operators to underwrite this condition. Requiring the worker to have this amount as a condition of the scheme is likely to increase the probability of exploitation, given the likelihood that people would have to borrow it. 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.
These employers said they had tried to increase the competitiveness of their job offers by subsidising meals, travel to site and accommodation. Poultry production employers were most likely to say they were paying large extra costs – including travel to and from the UK – to improve the attractiveness of the industry. Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX) also noted this behaviour occurring in response to the reduced earning potential on the shorter visa. Employers pay mandatory costs on the SWS, and also choose whether to take on additional costs on behalf of employees.g