"Seasonal workers find no hope in employment tribunals,"

Migrant workers who have been exploited on British farms face huge barriers to achieving justice through the employment tribunal – including rules effectively stopping them from giving oral evidence...

Legal experts told TBIJ about several obstacles that overseas workers face at tribunal. They include the length of the visa, language barriers and the lack of access to free legal advice...

... employment tribunal rules introduced in 2022 mean a person can’t give oral evidence from another country unless it has an agreement with the UK government...

... tribunals give little weight to written statements that aren’t accompanied by oral evidence...

He said companies can afford better legal advice than workers and also have access to more information and evidence about how they operate day to day.

Any UK worker faces a huge challenge in suing their boss: there is no legal aid for most employment issues, and more employment tribunal hearings are won by employers than workers. For those without legal representation, the chances of victory are even slimmer. But in the case of seasonal workers, the barriers are almost insurmountable.

They are often bringing their cases in a language they don’t understand, within a legal system they are not familiar with, and while living on the farm they’re bringing their claim against, lawyers told TBIJ...