The rural economy has probably not faced so many challenges at once since the last world war.
According to a report issued by the NFU, prepared by Promar International, the future of the UK’s fruit and vegetable industry is under threat from post-Brexit labour shortages and unprecedented input cost rises.
The report found that the costs of production have increased by as much as 27% over 12 months, with energy up typically 165% and fertiliser up by 45%. And then, of course, there is the shortage of economically efficient labour.
This year, farm workers recruited under the UK government’s Seasonal Worker Scheme (SWS) are to be paid in line with the National Living Wage (NLW).
This is not only the right thing to do, it also realises that to solve the seasonal worker challenge in the UK takes more than just encouragement to participate.
Speaking at the NFU Conference in Birmingham earlier this year, Defra farming minister Mark Spencer said temporary workers who come to the UK to pick crops would be paid the NLW from 1 April, which is £10.42/hour. ‘That’s the decent thing to do’ said Mr Spencer, ‘and I think it is vital that we all stick to it.’
The evidence suggests we have.
The UK government anticipated some 45,000 temporary migrant workers visas would be needed this year and retained the option to increase that number by a further 10,000.
In total, that’s 15,000 more visas than last year.
But what about the longer-term solution to the UK seasonal worker issue?
Fair pay helps: finally, migrant worker pay is now aligned with the pay of workers who had often worked for many years on farms to be paid at a lower rate than migrant workers. This is the first step in addressing the bigger challenge of long-term rural worker supply sustainability. But it’s only the first step.
The number of temporary migrant worker visas helps, but really only in the short term.
The bigger challenge is for the UK to make seasonal working attractive to UK workers who often lack the access open to EU seasonal workers used to travelling throughout different parts of Europe in line with growing seasons.
We have long talked about the UK now having a ‘gig economy’ and it’s possible the solution may lay there.
We contend that it’s time UK workers were supported (by the UK government, industry bodies and rural businesses) in integrating seasonal working into a year-round work calendar, with better access to available opportunities and support for travel to different UK (and possibly EU) locations. With the exponential increase in data availability and cutting-edge technologies such as quantum computing, edge computing and AI, it’s surely not beyond the bounds of possibility to create an easily accessed, comprehensive, integrated seasonal year-round market, with participating employers able to access data that enables them to refer participating workers on to further opportunities once their own seasonal need has ceased.
Access to opportunities is just one aspect of meeting the seasonal worker need of course. In the UK we need to increase, significantly, the training opportunities for seasonal workers (both on and off the job) so that they can be flexible enough to make seasonal working a competitive job choice.
For now though, we have pay parity, a decent pay offering and an increase in migrant worker visa issue numbers. It’s a start.
*The views expressed are the author’s and not ICAEW’s.