Employers said that access to support services needs to be simplified (suggesting a single helpline) and available at all times including weekends and bank holidays. Employers said that transfers were more frustrating when they perceived the reasoning to be “minor” or “social”. The network of communication between Seasonal Workers was said to mean that workers chased the locations offering the highest number of hours in that particular week.
Organisation and communication on the scheme
Those who are still in the visa approval process, having already paid their fee and submitted their application to UKVI, are unable to transfer to another operator and hence their applications are effectively cancelled. After one of the scheme providers had its licence withdrawn in 2023, their visa quota was reallocated among the remaining scheme operators. Scheme operators are allocated a share of the overall Seasonal Worker quota (for 2024 most horticulture scheme operators received 7,500 each and 1,000 each for the 2 scheme operators recruiting for poultry), but in previous years this has varied. This represents their individual ceiling number of Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) when the overall yearly quota is opened. Once the scheme operators have identified the employees whom they wish to ‘sponsor’ to come to work in the UK, they assign a CoS to the worker and the worker uses this CoS to make their application online. Overall, whilst they have the potential to increase worker productivity through reducing the ergonomic burden of tasks, in practice it was assessed that they offered minimal labour savings.
Why are Seasonal Workers vulnerable?
We have found some evidence that there is limited scope within the sector for pay increases that would be significant enough to encourage domestic participation in seasonal work. However, there is evidence of a lack of adequate communication and consultation with scheme operators and employers by the Home Office around this requirement, and it is yet to be fully implemented in practice. Greater clarity around how this will work is needed, and employers must retain the right to release staff where there are reasonable grounds to do so. We suggest further user consultation to better understand barriers to implementation and any risk this may potentially pose to the amount of work available to workers (through either ending placements early or avoidance of short-season crops).
Reflecting russian translation of statement in the uk in the Seasonal Worker Visa (SWV), the Home Office and Defra are jointly responsible for delivering the route. The Home Office leads on immigration policy and operational delivery of the visa, while Defra selects, manages and monitors scheme operators, along with gathering stakeholder insights on the route. Compliance and enforcement responsibilities are discussed below and are shared between a number of different actors.
- Employers commonly said they would have to reduce production levels to match certainty in labour supply in this scenario.
- Reasons given included lack of resource to run an apprenticeship scheme and that it would not allow them to source and train temporary labour.
- The NFU had criticised the SWS wage on its introduction in April 2022 (£10.10 per hour as it marked a 13.5% year-on-year wage increase and was 60p above National Living Wage (NLW) at the time).
- GLAA may take action against the farm when there is a modern slavery offence occurring at a site located within England and Wales.
- Recent changes to the salary thresholds on the Skilled Worker (SW) visa may increase the difficulty of bridging the gap between the moreentry-level Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) 1-2 roles covered by the SWS and RQF3 roles on the SW route, worsening this gap in middle management.
It is crucial that workers are provided with both information and complaints processes in the language they feel most comfortable with, even if another language is also used during recruitment. We have seen good examples of this, such as multi-language helplines and the IOM/GLAA providing information on workers’ rights in some languages. We would like to see this provision extended (for example, offering information in Central Asian languages). As work takes place seven days a week and employees usually live on site, problems may occur at any time. While the Just Good Work app provides the facility to get help in any country, it is also crucial that employees feel able to approach supervisors and other managers for help and have on-site contact details for use in an emergency. Workers should be given information on how to get help and on how to contact emergency services while they are in the UK, in their own language.
The SWT reports non-compliance to the relevant ASO, who will be expected to ensure that either the farm addresses the issues or that provision of workers to the farm stops. 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).
An area may show a limited role for agriculture due to the presence of an economic hub like a city in one part of the region, even if the sector is important to communities in another part of the region. Further, farms’ contribution to areas is not limited to economic output and there would likely be additional social costs if there were to be closures. In 2013 for example, we heard from several partners that the presence of the seasonal workers also helps to maintain some rural services, for example bus and taxi services (MAC, 2013). A large edible horticulture farm in the East Midlands reported they might invest in a new broccoli line, which would cost £5 million. This investment would mean that instead of 200 people being needed to operate the line, only 100 people would be needed. Without confirmation of a similar seasonal worker scheme in the next 5-10 years, it would be difficult to make this kind of capital investment.