Panellists at a session on seasonal labour at Festival of Fresh discussed how to prevent exploitation, newspaper coverage and the outlook for recruitment
Understanding the employer requirements of the SAWS scheme and the culture of seasonal workers could help reduce the risk of ethical exploitation.
That was the view of panellists in a session on seasonal labour, at the recent Festival of Fresh event, hosted by Fresh Produce Journal in partnership with Worldwide Fruit.
Chaired by FPJ contributing editor, Michael Barker, the discussion covered ethics, exploitation and availability of labour, as well as how suppliers can avoid a newspaper expose of seasonal worker exploitation.
“We urge people to understand the culture of the people who are working so hard for us,” said Matt Jarrett, chief executive of labour supplier Pro-Force, who said shared cultural events, where employees can bring food from their own cultures, can improve team bonding and trust, as well as a greater proximity to the workforce.
“Also, make sure you understand the [SAWS] scheme and your commitment around hours. There is a risk around understanding,” added Jarrett.
Shayne Tyler, co-founder of labour investigator firm TylerBladon Practical Ethics, said audits ultimately don’t prevent exploitation.
“Exploiters don’t give a monkeys about audits,” he said. “The industry is going down more of an audit trail. Audits do not protect you. If you really want to protect yourself, you have to pursue. It’s like cats – they’re there, even if you can’t see them.
“We need to make sure we’re managing these ethical issues. SAWS creates the stability to prevent exploitation. But there is worse stuff outside SAWS than inside the scheme. Packhouses are also taking seasonal labour,” he said.
The discussion covered the media interest in seasonal worker exploitation, with panellists pointing out the fears of suppliers around speaking out.
“When a supplier reports an incident to the modern slavery helpline, that information then goes to the media and the story is spun negatively. Whereas actually, they’ve done the right thing. It makes it difficult to speak up,” said Lee Abbey, the NFU’s chief horticulture and potatoes adviser.
Tyler said he believes there is a disproportionate interest in exploitation within fresh produce, because the industry is actively trying to tackle it. “[Journalists] are going after the industry that’s trying to do something about it. 12 miles away from here, there was someone who paid £28k to get a job in the care sector. That’s not in any newspapers, that’s not been picked up,” he said.
John Shropshire, founder of major produce supplier G’s and of the Modern Slavery Intelligence Network (MSIN), said while most workers are treated well, the few that aren’t are a problem.
He said training staff as well as doing internal audits were important, and called for more membership of MSIN, a pioneering non-profit industry collaboration to share intelligence about labour exploitation.
Shropshire also pointed to the political narrative around seasonal workers as unhelpful to the industry’s efforts to recruit.
“I don’t know why fresh produce has become so politicised by the two previous Home Secretaries, talking about fruit picking as a menial, derogatory task. I despair with that,” he said, adding “it’s a bit better now”.
“Workers are all housed on farms, they don’t need social care and they don’t impact housing. Where all the political narrative has come from, I really don’t understand,” he said.
Shropshire said from G’s perspective, the company is in “pretty good shape for seasonal labour”, while Abbey added that while enough visas have been allocated for this year, the longer-term picture is less clear.
“The short answer is we have enough visas to meet demand,” he said. “But we shouldn’t forget where we’re coming from. I’m slightly nervous about what’s coming.
“We were calling for a five-year rolling commitment. But it’s really key that we have a longer-term commitment.”
Both Abbey and Shropshire warned that automation will not be a short-term solution to the industry’s labour needs. Abbey said the sector doesn’t yet have the numbers to fill next year, so reducing the overall demand via automation is a longer-term political aspiration.
Shropshire pointed to the upcoming closure of funding to the PO scheme, which helped small growers invest in innovation such as robots. “The automation issue is a concern if the PO scheme goes,” he said.
Festival of Fresh is the fresh produce industry’s flagship event and conference and took place on 5 June, in partnership with Worldwide Fruit and hosted by FreshLinc at its Spalding site
