Agricultural workers from Unite, will today lobby Britain’s upper house of parliament to urge support for legal measures to stop Coalition Government plans [1] to abolish the Agricultural Wages Board (AWB). The Board sets minimum rates of pay and other employment conditions such as sick pay and holiday entitlement for 154,000 workers.
The Government tried to steamroller through its plans in 2012 by cutting the consultation time down to 4 weeks (usually it would be at last 12 weeks), restricting the number of organisations consulted and even changing the Bill [2] that the abolition plans were in but Unite has fought them every step of the way with numerous public actions.
IUF general secretary Ron Oswald commented “It’s a crucial vote today. Unite has done an amazing job of mobilising support for the AWB. We are ready to take the campaign global if necessary”.