A union representing the UK's agricultural workers has called on Farming Minister David Heath to extend the consultation on the Agricultural Wages Board.

The government announced plans to scrap the board, which negotiates and sets wages and work conditions for agricultural workers in England and Wales, in July 2010, not long after coming to power. However, fierce opposition to the proposed abolition has preserved the board until now.

Heath's predecessor Jim Paice expressed the desire to do away with the board and leave agricultural workers at the mercy of the markets, though Heath has previously signed an Early Day Motion asking for the board to be retained.

Although adult workers would still be protected by the national minimum wage, minors and other groups open to exploitation are also represented by the board; these people would undoubtedly fare worse if the AWB is forced to close. Opponents of the proposals have pointed out that Defra’s own figures reveal the abolition would remove £9 million from the rural economy, where critics claim government policy is already exacerbating rural neglect.

Representatives from union Unite, which has teamed up with the Labour Party to work on the 'Back the Apple' campaign aimed at supporting AWB, said "The abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) will accelerate the slide into poverty of 150,000 people working on the land in England and Wales."

On Friday (26th October), Unite asked the farming minister to extend the consultation on the future of the AWB to at least 12 weeks, arguing that interested bodies, particularly small organisations, may not have enough time to formulate their arguments for the retention of the AWB otherwise. There are fears that the consultation, which opened just after the AWB delivered this year's Agricultural Wages Order, marks the beginning of the end for the board.

The four-week consultation is due to close on 12th November. Matt Draper, unite's rural and agricultural officer, said that, following the initial delays caused by widespread opposition the decision, the government is now moving at "breakneck speed. " Scottish workers are protected by a wages board and Northern Ireland's government opted to retain the board earlier this year. The Welsh government also wants the board retained.  

Mr Draper, who has wrote to the farming minister last week, said, "In only four weeks, the fate of the measures that have contributed to the sustainment of rural life for some one hundred years could be sealed. Some 154,000 people's working lives will be directly affected along with others in the rural economy whose terms and conditions mirror those of AWB workers."

Mr Draper said that rural communities are economically fragile, and low wages are often the norm. He said the board was created out of a desire to afford some protection against rural poverty, which has worsened in recent years. The board's history dates back as far as the First World War.

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