NFUS angry at decision to class fruit and veg jobs as ‘low wage’

The Migration Advisory Committee’s (MAC) decision to classify the soft fruit and field vegetable sectors as “low productive and low wage” is a complete misrepresentation and significantly talks down the potential for the sector, it was claimed.

In an angry reaction to the MAC’S report, NFU Scotland yesterday said that evidence which it had submitted along with others in the agriculture, food processing and road haulage industries on the need for continued access to seasonal labour had simply not been taken into account.

Union president Andrew Mccornick said to say employers in the fruit and veg sectors – which account for close to 100 per cent of non-uk seasonal workers – needed to improve pay and conditions to compete for workers vastly underestimated the complexity of the situation. He said the standard entry level wage of £7.83 per hour was topped up with bonus schemes and overtime pay, adding that more experienced workers often earned double this rate.

Any future immigration system, said Mccornick, had to be based on a realistic expectation of the ability and availability of UK workers to fill the jobs currently carried out by nonuk migrant workers.

“This is why NFU Scotland has and will continue to lobby strongly for a robust seasonal agricultural workers scheme and an Immigration Bill which allows competent workers to come from elsewhere to takeuppositionsinscottish agriculture, food processing and road haulage.”