Farmers and landowners have been told by Scotland’s biggest union that they should work with the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board rather than try to undermine it.
The Unite union says the Scottish Government should ignore this week’s joint call from NFU Scotland (NFUS) and Scottish Lands and Estates (SLE) to abolish the board because farm workers are already covered by laws on the national minimum wage.
In December 2015 Unite succeeded in persuading the Scottish Government to keep the board in place as a protection for agricultural workers and the union’s Scottish secretary Pat Rafferty said he was astonished at the joint statement from NFUS and SLE.
“The future of the board was examined thoroughly by the Scottish Parliament as recently as 2015 – and MSPs and ministers agreed with us that it was vital to the protection of the interests of agricultural workers,” he said.
“The Board acts as a vehicle for us to continually push for better pay for low-paid agricultural workers. We can understand why employers might want to abolish it – because they could then easily get away with just paying the National Minimum Wage.
“But we don’t believe that’s good enough. Good employers realise the value of their workers and pay a fair rate for the job. That’s good for them, and it’s good for our members.
Mr Rafferty added that the Board wasn’t just about pay.
He added: “It is also about holiday entitlement and other conditions of employment. Without the Board, there would be no mechanism to work with employers to improve the conditions of their workers.”
