Labour pledges to reinstate Agricultural Wages Board

Labour has pledged to improve the pay and conditions of rural workers in England by reinstating the Agricultural Wages Board, which was abolished five years ago.

Jeremy Corbyn will announce the policy on Sunday at the annual Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival in Dorset, which commemorates the history of trade unionism and agricultural workers’ struggle for fair pay.

Labour says the move will tackle inequality in areas where average wages are among the lowest in the country. The new board would ensure that rural workers in England were entitled to minimum rates of pay, which may be higher than the national minimum wage, and to paid holiday, sick pay and rest breaks.

Mr 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.”

Agriculture minister George Eustice said: “The Agricultural Wages Board became redundant after this Conservative government increased the minimum wage and then introduced the new national living wage. Labour have never supported the rural economy and their policies would threaten jobs in rural areas.”

Northern Ireland and Wales still set rates for farm workers. For 2016/17, the Northern Ireland department of agriculture introduced a rise of 1.9% taking the basic rate to £6.76 an hour, and the craftsman’s rate for better qualified rural workers to £8.31. In Wales this was increased to £8.72.

The Labour Party introduced the Agricultural Wages Board in 1948. The coalition scrapped it in 2013.