Tarleton, Southport, Lancashire, UK. 18th March, 2015. Warm temperatures and drying soils enable migrant farm workers, labourers and owners to plant Romaine or cos lettuce using an automatic lettuce planter which is planting up to 12000 seedlings per hour. These should should now thrive in the newly tilled soil. This area, largely rural land devoted to vegetable crops grown on the rich and fertile soil of Tarleton Moss, supplies many of the major supermarkets in the UK as well as independent retailers, wholesalers, food service, food manufacturing sectors.
Many member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have a seasonal agricultural work programme (see Chapter 4). For example, Germany has averaged 300,000 seasonal workers annually in the last decade, mainly from Poland and Romania. And New Zealand has 8,000 places for seasonal workers from certain Pacific Islands. The immediate issue the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has been asked to address is what will happen when the present SAWS ends this year once A2 workers no longer have any restrictions on where they can work in the European Union (EU). The implicit question – for the Government, not the MAC – is whether there should be a replacement SAWS for workers from a non-EU country. Presently there are four main potential sources of EU labour – A2, A8, gangs and UK. It should also be remembered that there are over 26 million people unemployed in the EU. Growers, operators and A2 workers concur that the labour supply from Bulgaria and Romania will not immediately dry up. Some will return next year to the same grower; others will encourage family and friends to try working in horticulture. This work is potentially attractive in the short run because it provides a stepping stone into the wider British labour market. For example, the operators normally help the worker to get a national insurance number and to set up a bank account. A second source of labour is A8 workers, and workers from other EU countries like Portugal. Some growers recruit directly in A8 countries, some use recruitment agencies and some labour is supplied directly at the farm gate. This A8 labour is free to move employers but remains a major source of seasonal labour in horticulture. A third source is supplied by gangmasters. Concerns have been raised about some gangmaster-supplied labour including: quality, exploitation, payment of tax and national insurance contributions and living conditions.
Size: 3600px × 2400px
Location: Tarleton, Southport, Lancashire, UK.
Photo credit: © MediaWorldImages / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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