Call for clarity on seasonal workers post Brexit
With a lead-in time of around nine months for recruiting the seasonal labour which is crucial to keep Scotland’ s fruit and veg farms running, businesses ur gently require a clear indication from Westminster on the postBrexit arrangements for non-uk seasonal workers.
With the country’ s soft fruit season drawing to a close and vegetable harvesting and packing gearing up for the autumn, NFU Scotland yesterday issued a call for some decisions to be made on what will replace the free movement of labour when the Brexit transition period ends in December.
While the Seasonal Workers Pilot scheme allowed 10,000 permits to be offered to workers from outside the EU to work in the UK this year, the union made it plain that closer to 70,000 seasonal staff were required in the UK fruit, vegetable and ornamentals sector each year, with Scotland alone hosting around 10,000 of these.
Writing to MPS this week chair of the union’s sp e - cialist crops committee, James Porter, said that a fully functional Seasonal Workers Scheme was required to ensure Scotland’s vibrant fruit, veg and ornamental sectors could secure the necessary numbers of non-uk staff.
He said that while more UK staff had been recruited during the Covid pandemic, the industry still relied on a reliable, experienced overseas workforce, with a high level of returnees for the vast majority of its workforce:
“For many years, growers have been unable to fill vacancies from the domestic workforce, and this will continue to be the case as horticulture – an innovative, high-value sector of UK agriculture – invests in its future expansion.
“That is why the UK Government must arrive quickly at a decision which genuinely recognises the clear need for Scottish and UK horticultural operators to recruit workers from outside the UK through a sector-specific, seasonal scheme.
And with a lead-in time of nine months to recruit foreign workers, Porter said:
“Without urgent clarity on the UK Government’s intentions for the future of the Seasonal Workers Scheme, planting and investment decisions can
not be taken, and the sector could face severe productivity and financial challenges in the 2021 season and beyond.”
He pointed to a survey which had indicated that more than 40 per cent of businesses involved in the fruit and veg sector would cease activity altogether if they could not recruit workers from outside the UK.
“Loss of this productive capacity because of worker shortages would be highly damaging to Scotland’s agricultural output and the rural economies and communities which horticultural operations underpin in Scotland.
“A reinvigorated SWS presents a proven, lowcost, off-the-shelf solution which has the support of political parties across the House of Commons, as well as the parliament’s Home Affairs Committee, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, and Scottish Affairs Committee,” he said.