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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.”.
