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Vulnerable migrant workers from overseas pay often high levels of recruitment related fees and costs for their right to work, including for visa applications and travel. This causes several challenges for individuals recruited via the UK’s Seasonal Workers’ Scheme (SWS) in particular, and for migrants entering the UK under other immigration schemes. 

These costs absorb a significant portion of worker wages. Workers pay these costs upfront before arriving in the UK. Research indicates that these workers often sell personal possessions or take on debt, often by taking out high interest rate loans to meet these recruitment related costs. This puts workers at high risk of modern slavery and then exploitation or vulnerability...

In this regard, we welcome Sedex’s recent adoption of the EPP in their updated audit protocol utilised by much of the UK supermarkets’ supply chains as a means to promote and ensure compliance with standards on decent work and to prevent forced labour...

We recognise that implementing the EPP for Seasonal Workers in the UK will require a significant financial outlay at a time of great uncertainty for the UK farming sector. We believe, however, that it should be the supermarkets, not farmers, who pay these costs...

We the undersigned therefore call for UK supermarkets to meet the costs of implementing the EPP in the UK SWS, across the tier 2 visa scheme and across their global supply chains. 

We ask that the UK’s supermarkets, in conjunction with farmers and other suppliers, workers and trade unions, investors and civil society organisations, all work in partnership, including with the UK government, to swiftly develop a solution for sustainably implementing the EPP in the UK produce sector, across all immigration channels into the UK where workers are migrating for work, and in their global supply chains...