GOVERNMENT CUTS TO SEASONAL WORKERS POLICY THREATENS FARMERS' HARVEST

10.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 19th Sep 2007

A plan by the UK Government to cut the number of people able to participate in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme threatens to cause chaos to the harvest in the region's farms and market gardens, LibDem Euro MP Liz Lynne has warned.

Ministers have decided to slash the numbers of people from outside the EU allowed to take seasonal jobs here, and to confine the scheme to Bulgarians and Romanians only from 2008. But many farmers say it will be impossible to find enough pickers from the local and EU employment market to meet the demand.

Speaking today, Liz said: "The UK Government is showing complete naivety by failing to look at the situation on the ground. They do not seem to recognise the sad fact that many strawberry farms and market gardens of every kind are already struggling to find the workers they need."

"Unless policy is changed farmers face continuing nightmares at harvest time - the last thing they need after recent flood damage and rural payments shambles."

"The fact that we cannot get enough workers from Bulgaria and Romania through the seasonal agricultural workers programme only highlights the futility of the government's decision, supported by the Conservatives, to impose temporary restrictions on all workers from these countries."

ENDS

Notes to Editors: Over the last three years, the number of foreign workers coming to the UK from outside the EU as part of the government's Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS) has been slashed from 25,000 to 16,250 and under new rules next year, non-EU countries such as Russia and Ukraine will be unable to take part in the scheme - with all participants coming from Bulgaria and Romania.

The Home Office says the shortfall of seasonal workers will be made up by other eastern and central European workers who were given free access to UK jobs when their countries joined the EU in 2004. However, farmers and employment agency officials warn that the majority of the East of England's 65,000 migrant workers are looking for more permanent work in the building, manufacturing and catering industries.