October 2012 Review of the impact of ending employment restrictions on nationals of Bulgaria and Romania on the agriculture and food processing sectors 1. Introduction 1.1 At the end of 2013, the employment restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian (A2) nationals will be lifted and workers from both countries will have full access to the UK labour market. The Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS) and the Sectors Based Scheme (SBS) allow a quota of workers from Bulgaria and Romania to come to the UK to do specific low skilled work in agriculture and food processing.
1.2 The Minister for Immigration has asked the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to consider the following question and report back by the end of March 2013: ¡§The current restrictions on A2 workers will be removed at the end of 2013 and the current sector-based schemes for A2 workers (covering agriculture and food processing) will then close. What impact across the whole of the UK will this have on the sectors currently covered by the sector-based schemes.
2. Call for evidence 2.1 The MAC is gathering views and evidence from partners to help inform its response to the Governmen'¦s question. This document sets out the type of information the MAC would find most helpful to receive and provides details of where to submit evidence. We would like to hear from any interested party including employers, trade unions, representative bodies, experts and academics. Please circulate this document to anyone you think may have an interest. The call for evidence document is available on our website.
2.2 We are keen to visit workplaces to see the work being done under the SAWS and SBS, and to discuss the questions set out in this document and hear your views. Please contact the MAC secretariat if you would like to meet us. 2.3 The deadline for submitting evidence is 18 January 2013.
3. Context 3.1 Bulgaria and Romania became members of the European Union on 1 January 2007. The Treaty of Accession 2005 governs the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU and allowed existing members to impose transitional restrictions on the free movement of labour from those countries, for a maximum of seven years from the day of accession. The UK, along with many other European countries, applied the restrictions for the full seven years, meaning that A2 nationals have the right of free movement to the UK, but do not presently have an automatic right to work here.
3.2 There are a number of ways in which A2 workers may be able to work in the UK. Those who have a close family link to a UK national or to a national from within the European Economic Area (EEA) with the right to reside in the UK; who have completed 12 months continuous legal employment in the UK, or who are highly skilled do not require work authorisation in order to engage in employment requirement and work in a self-employed capacity is not subject to work authorisation requirements. Where work authorisation is required, this will be granted where the worker has an offer of employment for a skilled job that cannot be filled by the resident labour market. The only other work routes for A2 nationals are quota-based arrangements in the agricultural (SAWS) and food processing sectors (SBS).
3.3 When the restrictions on them are lifted at the end of 2013, A2 nationals will still be able to work in the agricultural and food processing sectors, and will no longer be subject to any numerical limit on doing so, as well as having the freedom to be employed in other sectors. However, the structured schemes whereby this is facilitated will no longer exist in their current form.
3.4 The SAWS allows farmers and growers in the UK to recruit A2 workers to undertake low skilled work, specifically planting and gathering crops, onsite processing and packing of crops, and handling livestock. Employment is restricted to a period of no more than 6 months. The SAWS has been operating for a longer period, but since January 2007 it has been restricted to A2 nationals. The SAWS has an annual quota which, since 2009, has been 21,250 persons per year. There is a high take up of the scheme; in 2011, the take up rate for SAWS was approximately 96 per cent, and by the second quarter of 2012 the take up rate was 98 per cent.
3.5 Similarly, the SBS allows employers to recruit overseas workers specifically to work in fish, meat and mushroom processing. Workers must be aged between 18 and 30 and the employer must prove that there is a genuine vacancy that can not be filled with a resident worker. Started in 2002, this scheme has been restricted to A2 nationals since 2007. SBS permits are issued for a maximum of 12 months. The annual quota for 2012 and 2013 for SBS is 3,500 but this is currently under-utilised. In 2011, the take up rate was approximately 24 per cent, and was 19 per cent by the second quarter of 2012.
4. Questions 4.1 The MAC would value your views and evidence relating to the economic and labour market impacts of having the SAWS and SBS, and the impact that closing these schemes will have. The questions below try to identify some key issues the MAC will consider. You do not have to answer all the questions.
1. What will be the impact of closing SAWS and SBS on your business/sector?
2. What impact was observed by your business/sector when labour market restrictions were lifted on A8 workers with EU accession in 2004?
3. Presently, there are 25.5 million unemployed people within the EU, including 2.5 million unemployed in the UK. Why are there not more UK resident workers employed to do this seasonal work? What efforts have been made by your business/sector to recruit from, and train, the existing UK and EU workforce to meet seasonal labour needs?
4. Does the benefits system incentivise the UK unemployed to take seasonal work in agriculture, horticulture and food processing? If not, why?
5. What are the advantages and the limitations of using SAWS/SBS?
6. What are the advantages, limitations and feasibility of the following options when the current SAWS/SBS come to an end: i) recruit more UK resident workers; ii) continue to recruit A2 nationals outside of a structured scheme; iii) recruit more workers from EEA countries; iv) use a structured scheme to recruit workers from new accession countries (for example Croatia) or non-EEA countries. Please specify which countries you consider most suitable; v) use a structured scheme to recruit non-EEA students who are studying outside of the UK. Please specify which countries you consider most suitable; vi) reduce demand for seasonal labour through, for example: mechanisation and investment in infrastructure; moving to permanent employment; changing or diversifying the crop produced; or importing the final product.
7. What is the best mechanism to ensure seasonal workers from abroad return home? Would you be in favour of financial incentives (for example, posting of bonds by the employer and/or worker)
5. Contact details 5.1 Please send your responses to the MAC Secretariat at: mac@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk Migration Advisory Committee 2nd Floor Fry Building 2 Marsham Street London SW1P 4DF Telephone: 020 7035 8117/ 1764 Please submit your evidence by 18 January 2013. Please note that we may quote evidence received, attributed to the individual or organisation that supplied it, in our published report unless we are explicitly asked not to do.
