Victory for fruit farmers AT LAST

HUGH ROBERTSON WELCOMES AGRICULTURAL WAGES BOARD VICTORY OVER HARVEST WORKERS

Hugh Robertson, Secretary of the All Party Parliamentary Fruit Group today welcomed the decision of the Agricultural Wages Board to create a new category of "Harvest Worker". This is the culmination of a campaign Hugh has been running since August last year - raising the issue constantly via debates in Parliament, questions to DEFRA and even via a Prime Minister's Question.

The issue arose as a result of the 2002 Agricultural Wages Board decision to raise the pay of casual workers from £4.30 to £4.91 per hour. This was a huge extra cost burden to fruit farmers for whom labour accounts for 40-60% of their cost base.

The new decision to create a new category of harvest worker means that those employed in picking and packing will now be paid £4.30 per hour, rising to £4.50 in line with the National Minimum Wage from 1 October 2003.

Hugh said: "This is terrific news and marks the end of a long campaign. The NFU team that negotiated this award has done extremely well.

I always felt very strongly that there should be proper distinction between genuine full time farm workers and those employed on a temporary basis, usually from Eastern Europe, during the picking season.

Last year's award caused huge damage to the fruit farming sector - one of Kent's traditional industries - and directly resulted in the loss of 11.2% of the national orchard last year.

"This year's award goes some considerable way to correct it"