New report examines risks of labour exploitation associated with the UK's seasonal worker visa
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A new report from the Landworkers' Alliance, Focus on Labour Exploitation, the New Economics Foundation, Sustain, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and a farmworker solidarity network explores the risks of labour exploitation associated with the design of the UK's seasonal worker visa (SWV). The report identifies the short-term nature of the SWV route, the sponsor-tied visa arrangement and poor governance of the programme, resulting in barriers to enforcement and access to justice.
The inherent labour risks identified include high levels of debt among participants, bullying and intimidation, long working hours and challenging working conditions incentivised by piece rates and the threat of being sent home midway through a shift.
Recommendations for improving the situation include recruiting through one authorised department of the origin countries of workers, cutting out brokers and middlemen, and the establishment of information centres to spread correct information on the process. It is also recommended that the UK government provides the option for renewal of the SWV, the ability to change jobs without losing the right to stay in the UK, pathways to permanent settlement and access to public funds. The report's authors also endorse a worker-led social responsibility (WSR) model, as has been successfully deployed by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Fair Food Program in the United States.
Our investigation has revealed systemic drivers of exploitation in the migration system and the supermarket supply chain. The seasonal workers’ visa has created an indebted workforce tied to their employers. This has facilitated endemic abuse on British farms. The benefits of this exploitation go mainly to the handful of supermarkets which dominate the food system, while farmworkers earn wages that are below thresholds for absolute poverty. To rectify this, we want supermarkets to pay to fund wage increases and to compensate workers for illegal third party broker fees. We demand that the government moves away from the practice of short term, sector specific visa schemes and work with farmworkers to establish new approaches to seasonal labour migration. Through direct testimonies by farmworkers, we hope to demonstrate that farmworkers are not passive victims of exploitation, but are both standing up against these injustices and a core part of the solution to bad working conditions.Catherine McAndrew from the Landworkers’ Alliance