Rural Payments and Services

Formal consultation on board’s future.

Views are being sought on the future of the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board.

The body is empowered to set minimum pay rates, holiday entitlement and certain other conditions of service for agricultural workers in Scotland, and Orders made by the Board have the force of law.

In a formal consultation, launched today, the Scottish Government is asking whether the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board should:

a) continue as it does now;
b) be retained as an advisory body; or
c) be removed so that arrangements for agricultural workers are determined
under general employment law

Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs Richard Lochhead said:

"It is absolutely imperative that workers are paid a fair wage for the job that they do.

"The legislation governing the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board specifies that its function must be reviewed periodically in order to ensure that it is delivering appropriate minimum rates of pay and other conditions of service for agricultural workers in Scotland.

"This consultation fulfils a commitment I made at the beginning of the current Scottish Parliament about reviewing the Board, which was last done in 2008.

"I urge everyone with an interest in agricultural pay and conditions to submit their views before the consultation closes on July 31, 2015."