Agriculture threat

There are renewed concerns over pay and conditions for farm workers following a proposal that the future of the Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) should be reviewed in 2004.

The report of the Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food says that the rationale for having a separate wages board for agriculture will "fade" as subsidies for farming disappear, especially now that there is a national minimum wage.

Last September the government announced that the AWB would be retained for at least another five years. The T&G, which is the largest union representing farm workers and workers in food production, has called on secretary of state Margaret Beckett to give an assurance that protection for agricultural workers will not be removed.