MPs have voted to to begin the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board – which over 140,000 workers in Britain rely on.
The AWB has protected the wages and rights of agricultural workers for over six decades.
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Sigh.
Before we had the National Minimum Wage we had a series of industry wage boards. These set minimum wages for each industry.
Now we have the National Minimum Wage we do not need to have individual industry wage boards. The job has been superceded. It’s simply money wasted on bureaucracy.
But then there’s nothing quite so conservative as the modern British left, is there? If it exists it must be preserved.
7 responses so far ↓
1 tomfiglio // Oct 25, 2011 at 10:11 am
Excuse the pedantry, but it’s “superseded”.
2 Serf // Oct 25, 2011 at 11:41 am
We have had a minimum wage for a decade at least. I am glad the bureaucracy works so quickly.
3 Richard // Oct 25, 2011 at 12:30 pm
Tragic. They might lose the dog allowance (£7.42 per dog per week).
4 Vir Cantium // Oct 25, 2011 at 3:55 pm
“which over 140,000 workers in Britain rely on.”
Really? They don’t rely on farmers giving them work then?
5 Surreptitious Evil // Oct 25, 2011 at 4:11 pm
Why are Scottish dogs so much less expensive than English ones? A mere £5.06 per week. They can’t all be terriers?
6 Richard // Oct 25, 2011 at 4:25 pm
The “birth grant” is incredible – your employer giving you a bonus when your wife has a baby.
Stunningly feudal (although I thought in the old days it was because of the possibility that the landlord was the real father).
7 John77 // Oct 25, 2011 at 10:44 pm
Excluding seasonal workers, who do not rely on the AWB even if it benefits them, the number of agricultural workers is 114,000 not 140,000 – vastly outnumbered by 295,00 “farmers and partners”.
http://www.ukagriculture.com/statistics/farming_statistics.cfm?strsection=Labour%20Force
But you can’t expect the Labour Party to do sums, can you? The three Rs are “so passe”.
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