Notes

Review of the Seasonal Worker visa accessible
Some employers told us that there may be restrictions in their ability to increase the hourly rate due to tight margins, something also mentioned in the previous government’s Independent Review into labour shortages in the food supply chain. The House of Lords report into the horticultural sector argues that this is a result of loss-leader pricing strategies in supermarkets which leads to poor grower returns within the horticultural sector. One could conclude from this that supermarkets should just charge more to improve growers’ margins and allow for the recruitment of domestic workers at higher wage rates; however, it is not as simple as that. UK producers compete with imports and, without further market intervention such as tariffs, an increase in the price of domestically produced food willlikely lead to consumers choosing imported food over ‘home-grown’. how to translate a book from russian to english to enforcement may also exist, for example responsibility for Seasonal Worker welfare is devolved, but Devolved Administrations are not able to access information from scheme operators about where workers actually are. Scheme operators’ responsibilities include ensuring that workers have a safe and compliant environment, and that they are provided with appropriate equipment (at no cost) to do the job safely.
Rules and requirements for employers
Further, workers on the scheme are generally young (average age 31 in 2023) and live on a farm (95% on site)meaning their use of health and transport services is likely to be limited. Workers are over the age of 18 and cannot bring dependants, so would not have children using the education system either. Other evidence we received suggested that the scheme’s impact on automation might be limited, with the relevant technology simply not available yet (irrespective of any availability/trends in SWV labour). Smaller and specialist farms argued that commercially feasible technology for their production needs did not yet exist while more broadly, a lack of commercially available technology meant farmers were uncertain on the best/most suitable technologies to be investing in. Prospective Seasonal Worker sponsors must be both endorsed by Defra and licensed by the GLAA before they can apply for a sponsor licence.
Defra
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. Employers and representative bodies we have spoken to suggested that businesses did not have the capacity to pay further costs. The NFU reported to our CfE that in an internal survey 32% of responding members would consider subsiding accommodation, and 28% would consider paying visa costs if necessary to ensure continued access to Seasonal Workers. Organisations we spoke to were working to tight profit margins; NFU estimate that production costs in the horticulture industry have increased by up to 39% in January 2024 with little increase in returns from retailers. A response to our CfE suggested that implementation of an EPP on the scheme could reduce the number of Seasonal Workers that employers can afford to employ, if these costs are not shared across the supply chain.

This is however, by no means a perfect comparison – the sampled UK wide workers may be working in higher skilled/paid jobs within a given occupation, explaining their higher wage. There is no English language requirement for the Seasonal Worker route, in common with other short- term work routes. However, in practice scheme providers may make other language rules – for example, that Seasonal Workers being recruited from Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistanand Tajikistan) should be able to speak Russian, whether or not this is actually their first language. 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. Accommodation charges are capped at £69.93 per person per week, in line with the standard National Minimum Wage (NMW) and NLW accommodation offset rules.
However, some expressed concern when scheme operators had only been able to recruit workers from countries the farm had no prior experience of working with. This was for varying reasons, including language difficulties, an element of the unknown, or a perception of there being a starker difference to the informal friends and family networks they had recruited through under FoM. 1 large ornamental horticulture farm had chosen not to use the SWS when offered Seasonal Workers from a new recruitment country, for example. As operators come to rely on an increasing number of source countries in order to meet employer demand for Seasonal Workers, the sustainability of the scheme needs consideration. The difficulty of ensuring recruitment is free of exploitation may also be greater in new markets or more distant countries, and so we recommend that a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is set up between the UK and each country Seasonal Workers are recruited from (see Chapter 5).

We have seen on farms that some Seasonal Workers who speak English will act as informal translators, with some reporting improved English skills over time. Site visits conducted as part of the research indicated that workers are usually accommodated in caravans or hostels with multiple people in each, ordinarily grouped by sex, couples/relatives or nationality. The SWS taskforce is disseminating industry wide supervisor training materials to develop positive behaviours and attitudes in order to become “champion supervisors”, in the form of minute modules with optional 15-minute additional tasks for each module. The Agriculture, Horticulture and Development Board (AHDB) has previously provided training for top fruit supervisors although no longer provides training on leadership and management.
However, in their announcement the Home Office did not clarify whether the extension of visa numbers would be confirmed on a rolling basis. We recommend that they do so each year in order to provide additional certainty – effectively meaning that users would have 5 years’ notice if the scheme were to be closed. Respondents to our CfE acknowledged that the minimal English skills of many Seasonal Workers leaves them more open to abuse, less aware of their rights, and potentially less likely to raise a complaint.
Clarifying the roles of the agencies involved (as recommended in the ICIBI report and accepted by the Home Office) would also be useful in ensuring that all aspects of enforcement are covered. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss the issue of transfers in greater detail from the employer and employee perspective respectively. There was also discriminatory behaviour/preferential treatment reported which included some nationalities being treated favourably whilst others were denied work or hours or were shouted at and humiliated. Ultimately, we believe that if the government intends to maintain current levels of domestic food production then there is a clear need for a SWS in the short-to-medium term. We have seen on farms that some Seasonal Workers who speak English will act as informal translators, with some reporting improved English skills over time. The SWS may have an impact on the agriculture sector’s automation transition, a process of replacing labour with technology seen as key to improving the sector’s productivity and competitiveness.
This suggests that the produce of UK agriculture is not as connected to other sectors in the economy compared to other industries. Equally, agriculture has the lowest total intermediate consumption of any sector (uses the products of other sectors as input the least) £22bn compared to £33bn for ‘other services’ and £79bn for real estate. Tables 2.5 and 2.6 below demonstrate the changing nationality profile of the Seasonal Worker intake over time, most notably following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. After this, men of fighting age were expected to stay in the country, which combined with the opening of additional routes by which Ukrainians could stay in the UK, meant that recruitment of Ukrainians onto the SWV dropped sharply.
Once a sponsor licence has been granted, organisations become an Approved Scheme Operator (ASO). ASOs must satisfy themselves as to the working and living conditions on sites they agree to supply with Seasonal Workers and must likewise ensure thatany overseas recruitment agencies they use are licensed by GLAA (including any subcontractors). GLAA is also responsible for communicating with the relevant authorities in countries of origin and working with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to ensure understanding of local requirements and to raise awareness of licensing. Although employers must guarantee employment for the minimum number of hours and paid at the minimum rate, workers may still be dismissed for reasons including misconduct (for example fighting, possession of drugs) or poor performance.
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