SAWS Scrapped

The Home Office has announced that the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS) will be scrapped at the end of this year.  The scheme allows farmers to recruit overseas workers for short term agricultural jobs, and has been especially important in the fruit and vegetable sectors.  Currently there is an annual quota of 21,250 SAWS participants.  From 1^st January 2014, when transitional labour market controls on Bulgaria and Romania are lifted, UK growers will have unrestricted access to workers from these countries.  Currently around a third of seasonal workers are recruited from Bulgaria and Romania and around 50% from the eight central and eastern European Member States that entered the EU in 2004.

Earlier this year the independent Migration Advisory Committee reviewed the impact of the closure of SAWS.  It concluded that most parties (growers, workers, supermarkets and consumers) gain from SAWS and recognised that UK growers could face problems replacing labour from within the EU.