The Scottish Agricultural Wages board has elected to delay its wage negations until later in the year in order to align it with the new timeframe for the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage changes. This means that no new Agricultural Wages Order will now be published until 1st April 2017.

NFU Scotland and Scottish Land and Estates, which represent employers and landowners, have welcomed the delay and called for the Wage Board to be dismantled, claiming it is “no longer required”.

The Scottish government decided to retain its wage board when the Conservative-Lib Dem Coalition government scrapped the English Agricultural Wages Board in 2013. The Wage Board meets twice a year to discuss wages, sick pay and holiday entitlements and other conditions for farm workers in Scotland. The board is comprised of a chair, four independent members and six members each from employers’ groups (NFUS and Scottish Land and Estates) and trade union Unite (which represents workers).

The Board usually meets in June to negotiate changes, so that new pay rates and changes to minimum conditions come into effect at the same time as changes to the National Minimum Wage (1st October). However, the government’s National Living Wage (not to be confused with the Living Wage, which is the independently calculated rate required to keep workers out of poverty) will be introduced in April, so Wage Board negotiations have been changed to coincide with the shift.

In a joint statement, Scottish Land & Estates’ senior policy officer Katy Dickson and Scott Walker, Chief Executive at NFU Scotland, said, “We believe this situation once again is an indication that, while the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board used to serve a valuable purpose, it is now no longer required.  It is an unnecessary extra layer of bureaucracy, which can lead to confusion for both employers and employees.”

The pair claimed both organisations “fully support employees being well paid and offered good working conditions" but said there is no longer a need for agriculture to be singled out as the only industry with a wage board. They said, “Discussions on rates of pay are best left to individual employers and the employees that work for them.  These talks can then properly take into account the differing conditions which operate in different farming enterprises and different businesses.”

However, the wage boards, which were first set up in the early 20th Century for industries with at-risk workers, were initially intended to improve the negotiating position of otherwise isolated workers in dangerous industries, including agriculture, where pay is graded according to different skill sets.

Reacting to the employers’ statement, Unite asked the Scottish government to ignore the calls to dismantle the Board. Unite Scottish secretary Pat Rafferty commented, “We are astonished at this statement from NFU Scotland and Scottish Land & Estates. 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.
 
“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.”
 
Rafferty added, “We also have to remember that the Board is not just about pay… Without the Board, there would be no mechanism to work with employers to improve the conditions of their workers. The Scottish Agricultural Wages Board plays an important role and employers should work with it, instead of trying to undermine it.”

From 1st October this year, the National Minimum Wage for all workers aged up to and including 24 years of age – and in the first 26 weeks of employment - will rise from its current level of £6.70 per hour to £6.95 per hour, and the employers’ interest groups have reminded their members that wages for farm workers cannot fall below this level.