Agricultural workers



The Agricultural Wages Board for England and Wales (AWB), which brought together employers and unions to set wages and conditions for around 150,000 agricultural workers, was abolished on 1 October 2013 by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (ERRA).


A challenge by general union Unite to its abolition in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) was ultimately unsuccessful (Unite v The UK, application 65397/13, 3 May 2016). Although the ECHR agreed with the union that Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights imposes a positive duty on states to support collective bargaining (Demir v Turkey [2009] 48 EHRR 54), it went on to conclude that governments have a “wide margin of appreciation” (i.e. lots of flexibility) as to how they do this. The UK’s duty did not extend to preserving the AWB machinery, ruled the ECHR. This was despite evidence that the only other statutory collective bargaining machinery in the UK – the statutory recognition procedure – is not available to most agricultural workers because the small size of most agricultural units means that groups of workers rarely meet the statutory threshold for statutory recognition (21 workers or more – see page 151 of Chapter 5). 



Following the AWB’s abolition, agricultural workers in England are now covered by the NMW regulations. 


Agricultural workers in England who were already employed before the abolition of the AWB on 1 October 2013 keep their rights under the final Agricultural Wages (England and Wales) Order 2012, if their employment contract says so. They include rights to higher agricultural wage rates, agricultural sick pay and other benefits. 


In Scotland, the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board (SAWB) continues to function, meeting twice a year to decide the minimum wages of Scottish agricultural workers and setting conditions for holiday and sick pay. In December 2015, the Scottish government confirmed that the board will be retained, after a review showed that abolishing it would drive down wages. 



The Northern Ireland board continues unaffected. 



In Wales, wages are set by the Agricultural Advisory Panel for Wales, a statutory body created under the Agricultural Sector (Wales) Act 2014 which meets three times a year to set minimum pay rates and other terms and conditions in Wales, to promote skills development, and to advise the Welsh government on agricultural matters. The panel includes trade union representatives. The Westminster government brought a Supreme Court challenge arguing that the Welsh Assembly had no power to set up its own agricultural wages board. The challenge was defeated in July 2014 (Agricultural Sector (Wales) Bill [2014] UKSC 43).