Labour call to retain farms wages board

Shadow Environment Secretary Mary Creagh wrote to Liberal Democrat and Tory MPs ahead of a vote in Parliament this week to abolish the Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) which sets pay levels for 152,000 fruit pickers and farm workers in England and Wales.

Labour has tabled an amendment to save the AWB when the issue is debated on Tuesday.

She said: “Forty-two thousand casual workers nationally will receive a pay cut next year when this year’s wages order runs out and they start a new job.

“Removing these rights from low paid workers at a time when rural families are feeling the squeeze from rising gas and petrol bills shows a Government that is out of touch with the needs of the countryside.”

Labour said scrapping the AWB will mean 152,000 rural and farm workers will see their pay and conditions get worse, £9m a year will be taken out of the rural high street from lost holiday and sick pay, 42,000 casual rural workers will have a pay cut in October 2012 when the current order runs out and minimum pay levels for schoolchildren working weekend or summer jobs will be axed.