Downward price pressure in the supply chain may have led the fresh produce sector in the UK to a dependence on temporary workers, but satisfaction levels among those workers are staggeringly high. These are the findings of three reports into employment in agriculture and primary and secondary food-processing commissioned by Defra.

The reports were published at the end of last month and based on extensive research among 85 labour providers as well as almost 1,000 workers and a further 900-plus users of labour in fresh produce and food processing.

“…The UK food chain has pressure points which have an impact on the utilisation of workers in the chain and can lead to poor and illegal employment practices,” the report found. “…Meeting just-in-time deliveries while maintaining quality standards at low prices puts labour-users under considerable pressure. Sudden changes in orders due to new promotions or fluctuations in demand have to be met with a surge in the number of temporary workers which even regular labour providers are unable to meet…the consequences for suppliers who fail to deliver to retailers on time are the loss of orders and possible delisting.”

Worker satisfaction surveyed found that 66 per cent of packhouse workers gave their gangmasters a good or very good rating with a further 32 per cent saying they were OK. These figures would be recognised as extremely high in any industry.

“We welcome some of the findings of these reports as they throw a lot of light on the operation of the market and its problems,” said Mark Boleat of the Association of Labour Providers. “They show it is not a case of nasty labour providers, but also the extent of the pressures that they are under and that the scope of the new act has got to be extended.”

The numbers employed in the sector vary between 420,000 and 611,000 considerably greater than government estimates taken on a particular day in June 2002 of 62,000.

But the number of labour-providers presents the government with something of a dilemma. The report found that there were some 550 visible labour providers and about 1,000-2,000 micro-providers. These figures are much smaller than previous estimates and could mean far fewer firms seeking licences from the proposed Gangmasters Licensing Authority with clear implications for the authority’s funding.

The authority, which will be brought in under the Gangmasters Licensing Act expects to cover only agriculture, including horticulture and primary processing such as washing and packing, but lines are blurred between primary and secondary processing which is likely to cause disagreement between different government departments as to the application of the act.

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