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Article

22 Feb 2025

Author:
By Eve Livingston, The Guardian (UK)

UK: Migrant farmworkers report being paid for picks, not hours, finds NGO; Govt. asked to investigate the issue

Allegations

“‘Exploited’ migrant farm workers in UK paid for picks, not hours”

…Ben is one of dozens of migrant workers who say they have not been paid after their employer linked their wages to the amount of crops they picked rather than the hours they worked. About 45,000 workers came from overseas to work temporarily in UK agriculture last year on the seasonal worker visa, a scheme introduced in 2019 to address Brexit-related labour shortages.

The Worker Support Centre (WSC)...said that of the 99 workers who contacted them with pay issues last year, more than half reported non-payment due to the measurement of product picked, resulting in large chunks of time – such as that spent moving between workstations or in team meetings – being unaccounted for and unpaid.

The WSC, along with the TUC, Anti-Slavery International and others, has now written to the Low Pay Commission asking for them to call for an HMRC investigation into the issue. ..

…the use of targets – and the dense and complicated payslips that are consequently produced – made it difficult for workers to decipher hourly pay…

The WSC analysed 38 payslips from 18 workers on 11 farms across Scotland and England. Only two included payments for in-work travel…