It was always clear that Britain’s departure from the EU would require new arrangements to fill capitalism’s labour needs that were previously provided by Eastern European workers under EU ‘freedom of movement’. This is now coming to pass, and in a chaotic and ad hoc way as labour shortages reach crisis point in one sector after another. The government is being forced to respond, largely with piecemeal and temporary solutions as it scrambles to meet employers’ demands while trying to retain credibility with the little England Brexiteers who form its primary base of support. In 2021, this included the expansion of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS) to include HGV drivers and poultry workers. Further measures have now been proposed for social care. The government’s own evaluation of SAWS has revealed the conditions of the exploitation it is enabling. TOM VICKERS reports.
FRFI has consistently argued that British capitalism is structurally reliant on the super-exploitation of precarious migrant workers. Only 14% of the population of Britain and the north of Ireland were born abroad, but migrants are disproportionately concentrated in the most ‘low-skilled’ roles in many critical sectors (often more accurately described as low-paid and low-status). For those roles on the lowest levels of the Regulated Qualifications Framework, in 2019/20 migrants performed 23% of these jobs in Accommodation and Hospitality, 31% in the Manufacture of Foods and Beverages, 21% in Transport, and 30% in Warehousing.
Agriculture
On 24 December 2021, the results of a pilot scheme for SAWS were announced. The pilot, beginning in 2019, was limited to two licenced labour providers, Concordia and Pro-Force, which were ‘required to meet the Gangmaster’s and Labour Abuse Authority’s (GLAA) licensing and ethical labour standards requirements’. Concordia is a charity based in Brighton, whose other work focuses on international volunteering and includes as part of its history the ‘European Volunteer Workers’ of the 1940s – in reality refugees displaced by the Second World War who were brought to Britain to address labour shortages without according them any long term rights. Pro-Force is a company based in Canterbury with a history of direct recruitment in Eastern Europe.
The terms of SAWS visas are for limited duration, preventing migrant workers from integrating with British workers or putting down roots. In the first year the scheme was limited to 2,500 workers, increasing to 10,000 in 2021 and 30,000 in 2022. 2,481 workers came to work on around 65 British farms under this scheme in 2019, contributing a total of just under 2 million hours’ work, largely in the harvesting of fruit and vegetables. These are aspects of food production that are difficult to automate and must be performed close to the point of consumption because the food quickly spoils, making it difficult to export this work to countries where wages are lower.
The pilot evaluation found that demand from farmers for migrant labour was considerably higher than the number of visas issued. Operators also reported a high level of demand for the scheme in the countries workers were travelling from, creating potential to increase recruitment. This reflects the structural inequalities created by imperialism, where underdevelopment in some countries leads to low wages and a shortage of jobs, creating pressure for people to move abroad in order to earn and send money home to support their friends and family. SAWS workers are low-paid – averaging £8.77 per hour in 2019 – and the work only lasts for part of the year, even when employers adhere to regulations and contracts. Workers must leave their families behind and the majority live on the farm where they are working, increasing employers’ control and limiting workers’ opportunities to form contacts outside of work.
There is also considerable evidence of farm managers treating migrant workers even worse than required by their contracts. 16% of surveyed workers reported not being paid fully and 29% said that operators had not adhered to all aspects of their contract. 15% of workers who answered the pilot survey said their accommodation was neither safe, comfortable, hygienic nor warm and 10% said their accommodation had no bathroom, no running water, and no kitchen. Compliance visits to 17 farms found that almost half were not providing all workers with a contract in their own language, and at four farms workers reported they had not been provided with necessary health and safety equipment, forcing them to source equipment at their own expense if they were to work safely. 22% of surveyed workers said they were not being treated fairly by farm managers, with reports of racism, discrimination, or mistreatment on the grounds of nationality featuring prominently.
Social care
In late December 2021 the government announced its intention to increase access to visas for care workers. This follows preliminary findings from a Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) review of the impact of Brexit on the adult social care sector. The findings will surprise nobody who is familiar with the sector – that there is a critical shortage of staff, with an estimated vacancy rate of 11.2% in October 2021, and that the main causes of these shortages are low pay, poor terms and conditions, and a lack of opportunities for progression. 16% of care workers have zero hours contracts and 49% of care work takes place in the evening or nights, making it an unpopular choice compared to alternatives such as catering and retail. The MAC has also concluded that the staffing shortage is getting worse as workers rapidly burn out and leave, with an annual turnover rate above 30%, and that the fundamental cause of all of these issues is inadequate funding.
It is increasingly the case that labour can only be found under these conditions by drawing in workers from countries where people are sufficiently desperate. Between 2012 and 2020 the proportion of care workers in Britain and the north of Ireland who were migrants increased from 19% to 25%. In London, migrants from outside the EEA account for 55% of all care workers. While the MAC claims that its proposed further increase in the use of low-paid migrant workers is only a temporary measure to alleviate the current crisis, in reality it is a long-term structural feature of the way the capitalist state arranges for the provision of care.
These new developments show once again that the super-exploitation of migrants is central to crucial sectors of British capitalism. It is enforced and enabled by the British state. It can only be resisted by independent working-class organisation.
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 286, February/March 2022
