Bitter harvest for workers

Farm workers are set to lose out as the Tories scrap a board that sets their pay.

The government has axed the Agricultural Wages Board as part of its “quango cull”.

The board of union reps and employers set a minimum rate for farm work.

This year it had gone for a 2.8 percent increase, bringing standard-grade farm workers’ pay up to £6.58 an hour.

Craft-grade workers would have got £7.76, and farm managers more still.

Now farmers will be free to pay workers as little as they like, limited only by the minimum wage of £5.80 an hour.