{"id":5019,"date":"2015-07-29T17:00:58","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T16:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=5019"},"modified":"2015-07-29T17:00:58","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T16:00:58","slug":"rural-workers-will-suffer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=5019","title":{"rendered":"Rural workers will suffer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A renewed call for better pay and conditions, as well as better health and safety standards for farmworkers was made this month by Unite executive council member Ivan Monckton, who represents agricultural workers in the union.<\/p>\n

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Speaking on BBC Radio 4\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s programme Farming Today<\/em> on July 13, Monckton criticised chancellor George Osborne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s latest budget, saying the national minimum wage hike will do nothing to help farmworkers.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015b[Osborne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new national minimum wage] only comes in at 25 [years of age],\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe vast numbers of people who work in the summer are going to be under the age of 25.<\/p>\n

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Even for those over 25, Monckton argued, the budget has left farmworkers out in the cold.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnfortunately, if you take account of the in-work benefits that are going to be cut, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually going to mean a decrease in the income of many, many people. Certainly rural workers are going to suffer overall.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Monkton condemned the Country Land and Business Association\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (CLA) claim that the hike in the minimum wage would be harmful to farm and landowners, whose profit margins, they say, are already tight.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe CLA have been coming out with the same story for the last 40 years,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Monckton told Farming Today<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always the same from the CLA and the farmers, that anything that happens that improves the lot, even marginally, of rural workers is going to lead to the loss of business, the collapse of profits. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all the same story.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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As UNITElive has previously reported<\/a>, farming has persistently remained the most dangerous industry in the UK. Thirty-three workers were killed on farms in England, Scotland and Wales in the year leading to April \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a trend that Monckton said could be reversed if employers cooperated with workers.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMany years ago there was a lot of work done on the concept of roving health and safety representatives,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAll of the information that has been gathered by the HSE and by our union is that roving health and safety reps actually do make a difference. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not something that the National Famers Union are particularly keen on.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Evidence from previous roving health and safety rep schemes funded by the HSE showed that they made a big difference, Monckton noted.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut the money dried up and the NFU weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to pay, there was no way that the farmworkers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 union could pay, so the whole thing collapsed,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need some sort of system whereby both sides of the industry are working together \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not just at national level but actually on the farms in the countryside to try and do something about these appalling figures.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Monkton added that the farming industry, which is now predominately run by older workers, faces a future workforce shortage if pay and conditions don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t improve.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHow are you going to get young people to actually decide to move into farming as a career, when they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re [only] an employee? If I was 18 or 19 again, I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even entertain the idea.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Listen to the full interview here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A renewed call for better pay and conditions, as well as better health and safety standards for farmworkers was made this month by Unite executive council member Ivan Monckton, who represents agricultural workers in the union.   Speaking on BBC Radio 4\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s programme Farming Today on July 13, Monckton criticised chancellor George Osborne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s latest budget, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[42],"wps_subtitle":"Government measures leave farm workers out in the cold","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5019"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5019"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5021,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5019\/revisions\/5021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}