Campaigners backed by Unite, a union representing many of the 150,000 agricultural workers whose pay and work conditions will be threatened by the closure of the Agricultural Wages Board, will protest against plans to scrap the board outside Defra offices in coming weeks.

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Protestors have announced that they will dress as badgers to demonstrate against the government's plans to do away with the AWB, which entered their final stages with the opening of a consultation last month, despite two years of vehement opposition. The 'badgers' will demonstrate outside a Defra board meeting on 12th November.

Julia Long, a spokesperson for Unite, said the badger costumes are in reference to the government's proposed badger cull, which was halted abruptly last month, just days before culling was due to start in Gloucestershire and Somerset in an attempt to address Bovine TB in the areas. The embarrassing U-turn, the latest in a series for the current government, led Shadow Environment Secretary Mary Creagh to suggest Defra would use its postponement to "kick [badger culling policy] into the long grass."

However, Ms Long added, "The badger protest makes a serious point - if the Government could stop the cull of the badger population very abruptly, they could easily do the same for the AWB. There is no way that those living in rural communities could engage in a digital only consultation in the four-week time span."

Defra's own figures show that the board’s abolition would see £9 million sucked from the rural economy, mostly in areas where there is a growing gap in public spending leading to "rural neglect". According to Unite, the AWB's abolition would see £140 million being lost to low-paid workers and kept by their employers.

In light of these figures, Northern Ireland and Scotland have opted to keep their wage boards intact and the Welsh government has been engaged in heated debates with Defra over the former’s unwillingness to do away with the board, which it claims is a key element in protecting workers’ interests and work conditions.

Although Defra claims the introduction of the national minimum wage has rendered the AWB obsolete and that its abolition will free farmers from bureaucracy, Welsh farming unions have disagreed. The Welsh Federation of Young Farmers and the Farming Union of Wales have both opposed plans, claiming the board’s abolition will accelerate the slide into poverty of vulnerable workers in rural regions and that losing the AWB could put a greater burden on farmers, who would have to negotiate wages themselves.

Contrary to Defra ministers' claims that the AWB is a relic of the First World War, sectors where workers were at high risk of exploitation or dangerous work conditions (agriculture remains the UK’s second most dangerous industry) often had separate wage boards until the early 1990s, when most of them were closed by the last Conservative government. Critics have said that removing the protection provided by the AWB would undoubtedly result in increased levels of poverty in rural Britain, where deprivation is already on the rise.

The AWB negotiates with industry and government representatives each year to set pay and conditions for agricultural workers. Due to the nature of agricultural work, these conditions cover issues including rest and time off, tied housing and conditions for minors and seasonal workers. Many of these issues would not be covered under minimum wage legislation.

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