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They are entitled to at least 1 day off per week, or 2 days every two weeks, and a rest break of at least 20 minutes if working more than 6 hours per day. Given that the SWV had been in operation for several years, in March 2023, we wrote to the then- Minister for Immigration informing him of our intention to launch an inquiry into the scheme. Under the terms of the Framework Agreement between the Home Office and the MAC we are able, alongside commissioned work from the government, to engage in work of our own choosing and to comment on the operation of any aspect of the immigration system. The MAC had previously commented on the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Scheme (SAWS) in May 2013. With Apostilleandcertification.com, get precise and trustworthy certified translation services in the UK.

Chapter 2: How the Seasonal Work Visa works

Consensus among those we have spoken to does, however, suggest a rolling 5-year confirmation would be more beneficial in providing the ongoing certainty employers require. In our recommendations we support that a rolling 5-year scheme is necessary, whereby the scheme is confirmed each year for the following 5 years. For employers spoken to as part of the research or responding to our CfE, the SWS was a key element of their recruitment strategy.

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In instances where workers have arrived onsite with little to no money farms, rather than scheme operators, appeared to be the organisations maintaining workers, such as by providing money for food. Whilst we believe that employee protection on the SWS is currently imperfect, the existing scheme operator system does provide important separation between the day-to-day employer and an individual’s source of permission to stay in the UK. The high-risknature of the SWS, involving language barriers and rural locality, makes a direct recruitment model risky. As we discussed in Chapter 2, different operators have different charging models, for example a single upfront fee or a weekly charge. Employers that used Seasonal Workers only for part of the 6-month visa, or lost workers due to switching and dropouts, were particularly likely to express the view that it was unfair to pay a full upfront recruitment fee rather than be charged for the time the worker was onsite. Other employers objected to having to pay repeated recruitment fees to cover longer seasons over 6 months.

Who comes to the UK on the Seasonal Worker Visa?

Making this a formal requirement for all employers could, however, have consequences for certain employers’ use of the scheme. Some small non-users indicated that the cost of the scheme had already influenced them not to participate, requiring employers to pay higher costs may further discourage smaller businesses from using the scheme and may make access to seasonal labour unviable for some employers. Employers with an annual pay bill over £3 million, in common with other such businesses, are required to pay the apprenticeship levy (a 0.5% charge on businesses’ annual pay bills). While only larger employer organisations will be paying this cost, some employers said they were unable to access the levy. Reasons given included lack of resource to run an apprenticeship scheme and that it would not allow them to source and train temporary labour.

• Those requesting an increased visa length tended to specify 9 months as desirable in horticulture, although there was demand from mushroom growers for a specific scheme that could last up to 2 years.
• Some individual poultry sector employers indicated that a longer period would be useful to cover the rearing and processing of breeding birds in spring and early summer and support the increase in year-round frozen poultry production.
• The main translator, Olga Grishina, is a native Russian speaker and until recently a Professor of English at Moscow State Linguistic University.
• However, other evidence suggests that Temporary Migrant Worker Programmes have a negative impact on conditions.

They also identified gaps in accountability for decision making and monitoring on the scheme and said that clarification of these responsibilities would improve information and support on the scheme. Employers we spoke to also called for the government to provide specific direction on how to manage their employees’ pension and income tax contributions. Several employers demonstrated that they provide introductory information on these issues through presentations and the Good Work App but have felt conflicted as they cannot action requests and are unable to support workers to gain rebates once abroad. The SWS Taskforce has taken steps to produce resources to support employers navigating complicated scheme rules and the pay and benefit system, however this should not be down to the industry to produce. Of the organisations participating in the research or responding to our CfE some paid additional costs on behalf of workers; most commonly employees’ travel in the UK, accommodation, and visa costs, although most required Seasonal Workers to be wholly or partly responsible. These employers said they had tried to increase the competitiveness of their job offers by subsidising meals, travel to site and accommodation.
Between 1% and less than 1% of all visa holders (who gave a reason) said they had left early due to illness or injury over the last three years (see Table 5.5). Our visits, CfE and several UKVI compliance reports found that in addition to being charged the maximum accommodation amount, workers tended to pay additional money for necessary services such as utilities and laundry. Some farms also charged for other services and facilities such as bedding and wi-fi, which are not requirements but are important to employee welfare. Some farms did cover these additional charges and it would be worth considering whether they could be made requirements. Similar information and paperwork, with some operators’ differing criteria and requirements being difficult to understand. russian translation of assembly drawings in the uk reported during fieldwork that they had been visited 6 times by Home Office, and had 50 days of external auditing, in the past year.