Labour will boost the pay of rural workers, Corbyn tells Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival

Labour will boost the pay of rural workers by reinstating an Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) for English workers, Jeremy Corbyn will say today.

Addressing the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival in Dorset, an annual commemoration celebrating trade unionism and agricultural workers’ struggle for fair pay, the Labour Leader will announce that after Brexit a Labour Government will reinstate the Board abolished in 2013 at an estimated cost of £149 million to the wages of rural workers.

A reinstated AWB for English workers will ensure rural workers are entitled to minimum rates of pay which may be higher than the National Minimum Wage, paid holiday, sick pay and rest breaks.

Alongside other Labour policies, including free bus travel for under-25s – linked to councils taking bus services under public ownership or introducing franchising models – and guaranteeing full employment rights for all workers from day one, Labour believes the reintroduced AWB will be a major step towards reducing rising inequality in rural economies and across the UK.

In his speech at the Festival, Jeremy Corbyn will say:

“Almost 200 years after the Tolpuddle Martyrs bravely stood against the exploitation of employers paying poverty wages, Labour is committed to reintroducing the Agricultural Wages Board and increasing pay and fundamental rights for all agricultural workers.

“This decision will bring back millions of pounds to workers across the English countryside, in addition to guaranteed paid holiday, sick pay, and rest breaks.

“Rural workers have been consistently ignored by the Tories. The South West is the low pay capital of the UK. Here, and across the English countryside, agricultural workers have been abandoned by the shameful decision to scrap the Agricultural Wages Board.

“The struggle of the Tolpuddle Martyrs sowed the seed for the modern trade union movement and the Labour Party itself. The best way to honour that noble struggle is not just to remember why it took place, but to secure in our time what those workers fought for: the right to fair pay and decent working conditions.”

Notes to Editors

• ·         The Labour Party introduced the Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) in 1948. It was scrapped by the coalition Government in 2013under the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013.

• ·         The Government’s own impact assessment warned that abolishing the AWB would take £260 million out of the agricultural economy, including a £149 million reduction in workers’ wages. 

• ·         Agricultural workers in Wales, and those employed in England before – but not after - 1 October 2013, are normally entitled to:

• o   minimum rates of pay which may be higher than the National Minimum Wage
• o   paid holiday
• o   Agricultural Sick Pay
• o   pay even if bad weather stops work
• o   night work pay
• o   on-call allowance
• o   30-minute rest breaks, if they are 18 or over and work more than 5.5 hours a day

https://www.gov.uk/agricultural-workers-rights

• ·         The Welsh Government reinstated an AWB for Wales in 2013. The current Welsh rates are detailed here https://beta.gov.wales/agricultural-wages-minimum-rates-2018. Both Northern Ireland and Scotland are covered by devolved legislation in this area and have AWBs, although their functions are relatively limited and focus on rates of pay.

• ·         Labour’s reintroduced AWB will empower trade unions and workers in agriculture and farming, giving rural workers more power over their pay and working conditions. The Board will increase the bargaining power of often poorly paid agricultural workers as part of Labour’s commitment to rolling out sectoral collective bargaining under a new Ministry of Labour.