In what agricultural workers are hoping could be the second spanner in the works for unpopular government policy this autumn, Prime minister David Cameron has been told that the government could be acting unlawfully by keeping its final consultation on the Agricultural Wages Board open for a mere four weeks.  

Unite, the union representing agricultural workers, 150,000 of whom are at risk of losing work standards and pay protection under the government’s plans to abolish the AWB, had called on the Prime Minister to extend the govrnment’s consultation on the board, a victim of the Coalition's 2010 'Bonfire of the Quangoes.'

On Tuesday, Unite said the government consultation should remain open until 21st January 2013, in order to enable all interested parties to make their case. The consultation is currently due to close on Monday 12th November. Unite claims £140 million in workers' wages is at stake.

In a letter to the prime minister, union general secretary Len McCluskey said, "Our legal advisers are reviewing the extent to which the government’s approach to this consultation has been lawful."

He added, "What is happening with the consultation on the future of the AWB is anti-democratic; hundreds of thousands of rural workers and stakeholder organisations are being locked out of the consultation to the certain detriment of the people most impacted by any abolition. There is concern within the National Farmers Union (NFU), as well as Unite and other consultees, about the potential scale of the internal consultation they need, set against the deadline imposed by government.

"Concerns have been expressed to Unite by some civil society groups that their views have not been sought and that the consultees draw heavily from the large employers and retailers. For instance, why are the views of the agricultural colleges not being sought?"

The Welsh government, as well as the Labour Party in opposition, has pledged to support the board, and Welsh environment secretary John Griffiths has been in conversation with his English counterpart over the issue. Whilst the Welsh government maintains it should be consulted on the matter, Defra ministers have said that wage control is not a devolved issue, so there is no need to gain the approval of Welsh AMs.  

Unite has criticised the government’s approach to the consultation as deliberately limiting access, through a combination of its brevity (a mere four weeks) and the principle of 'digital by default' on which it is being run. Unite's McCluskey said, "Internet services in rural areas are notoriously poor due to historic government under-investment, and mobile reception being notoriously unreliable. The imposition of ‘digital by default’ on this consultation, in particular, is being seen as a deliberate attempt to evade the views of those seeking to defend the AWB."

The abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board would represent the dissolution of England’s last wages board; the boards were set up to negotiate pay and conditions in notoriously low-paid or dangerous industries through meetings between representatives of employers, government and workers.

The AWB secures conditions and wages for minors, as well seasonal and precarious workers who would not receive the same protection from minimum wage law. The board’s remit includes securing terms on the provision of warm and protective work clothing and 'reasonable rent' for tied-in accommodation, neither of which would be fully covered should the board be dismantled. The devolved governments of Scotland and Northern Ireland have both opted to protect their Agricultural Wages Boards.

Farming Unions representing employers have also expressed reservations about the board’s dissolution, as this could lead to increased bureaucracy for farmers, who would have to become wage negotiators themselves, in addition to its sapping money from some areas of England and Wales with high poverty markers.

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