‘Exploited’ migrant farm workers in UK paid for picks, not hours

When 26-year-old Ben* boarded a flight in Uzbekistan in June, he was looking forward to more than just a summer job picking fruit and vegetables on a British farm.

“I wanted to see new places, cities I’ve never seen before,” he said. “I wanted to make friends, exchange ideas and make new memories.”

But Ben found the owners of the Scottish farm he worked on demanding and unresponsive to worker concerns. When the time came for him to receive his pay, Ben says he was not paid for all the work he carried out.

“I was surprised because the employer just pays you what they want, even if that is [different from] your contract,” he said. “They come up with various excuses.”

Ben is one of dozens of migrant workers who say they have not been paid after their employer linked their wages to the amount of crops they picked rather than the hours they worked. About 45,000 workers came from overseas to work temporarily in UK agriculture last year on the seasonal worker visa, a scheme introduced in 2019 to address Brexit-related labour shortages.

The Worker Support Centre (WSC), a Scotland-based NGO which supports seasonal workers across the UK, said that of the 99 workers who contacted them with pay issues last year, more than half reported non-payment due to the measurement of product picked, resulting in large chunks of time – such as that spent moving between workstations or in team meetings – being unaccounted for and unpaid.

The WSC, along with the TUC, Anti-Slavery International and others, has now written to the Low Pay Commission asking for them to call for an HMRC investigation into the issue. Philippa Stroud, chair of the Low Pay Commission, said she was concerned by the WSC’s evidence.

“You work in the fields during harvest season, and it’s no secret that not all fields are located around the farm,” Ben told the Observer. “Some fields [take] hours to reach – but the employer doesn’t pay for that time.”

While all seasonal workers must be paid at least the national living wage in England, or the agricultural minimum wage in Scotland, the WSC said the use of targets – and the dense and complicated payslips that are consequently produced – made it difficult for workers to decipher hourly pay. Many believed when they accepted the job that they would be paid an hourly rate and were only informed of picking targets when they arrived, they said. Some who kept detailed logs of hours worked found that the amount on their payslips did not correspond to their time working.

The WSC analysed 38 payslips from 18 workers on 11 farms across Scotland and England. Only two included payments for in-work travel, and only one for breaks. The majority – 34 – did not include any payment for team meetings or time spent receiving instructions and equipment at the start of each day.

Payslips seen by the Observer show long and complex lists of products itemised by type and weight, with payment apparently calculated based on the quantity picked of each.

“From our analysis, it does not look like these workers were paid for the whole time they spent at work,” Valeria Ragni, WSC operations manager, said.

Ragni said that in some cases even the employers told the WSC they were struggling to understand the payslips. “Some payslips are so confusing they make it impossible for workers to enforce their rights. We need payslips to clearly document the hours and times worked, and to indicate employers’ methods for calculating them, so workers can accurately assess whether they’re being paid for the work they have done.”

The scale of the issue is likely to be far greater, Ragni said, because seasonal workers are often afraid to raise concerns due to their insecure status.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “Everyone should be paid fairly for the job they do. It’s time to crack down on bad bosses exploiting and underpaying seasonal migrant workers below the legal national minimum-wage level.”

Stroud said she wanted to understand more about seasonal workers’ experiences. “A variety of evidence suggests migrant workers are more vulnerable to underpayment and less likely to report when it happens,” she said.

A government spokesperson said it would work closely with scheme operators “who have responsibility for ensuring the welfare of migrant workers”. They added: “We will always take decisive action where we believe abusive practices are taking place.”

*Name has been changed