Defra to continue with wages board abolition

Defra has planned to continue to disband the Agricultural Wages Board, the panel which sets minimum wages and conditions for agricultural workers.

Plans to abolish the statutory panel were announced by the government in July 2010.

The government considers that by abolishing the Agricultural Wages Board, and hence the agricultural minimum wage regime, it will simplify employment practices and remove an unnecessary regulatory burden.

"Farming today is very different from what it was when the AWB was first set up more than 60 years ago" said CLA President Harry Cotterell.

"The current system has become outdated and is no longer relevant to the structure of modern-day agriculture."

But critics say abolishing the panel will increase rural poverty and jeopardise the conditions of agricultural workers.

Supporters of the abolition say the wages board does not take into account different income returns from the different sectors within agriculture.

"Since the introduction of legislation governing the minimum wage, working time and paid holidays, the minimum terms prescribed by the AWB are no longer needed to protect agricultural workers" continued Cotterell.

“Farming is a specialist enterprise for which employers are keen to invest in the training and skills of employees, but it has been set apart as a special case for too long. In practice, many agricultural workers are not governed by the rates set by the Agricultural Wages Order (AWO) but are instead paid at rates that comfortably exceed it.”