Latest news and blogs
WSC is recruiting!
Join our team! We are a committed and impact-driven team, based in Scotland and motivated by achieving positive outcomes for workers! We're currently looking for: Peer Engagement Officer - Agriculture Peer Engagement Caseworker - Care Please send your CV and a cover...
Time to make work pay
“The farm owners do not treat us very well. They calculate the working hours according to their convenience,” a worker told me last summer. He is one of 99 workers on the Seasonal Worker visa who last year raised issues related to pay on farms with the Worker Support...
WSC Annual Report shows a 72% increase in demand for our service in 2024
Today, the Worker Support Centre (WSC) launches our Annual Report of findings from support to 697 people in relation to seasonal agricultural work. It shows a 72% increase in demand for our service in 2024 from the previous year.
As evidence of exploitation of workers increases the Seasonal Worker Interest Group calls for action
The Seasonal Worker Interest Group has today provided first hand evidence of the serious levels of abuse that workers are facing in its submission to the Office of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement (ODLME). We now reiterate our call for urgent action in...
WSC launches new briefing on a Fair Work Agency
This briefing sets out WSC’s five principles for effective labour market enforcement, which must be: accessible; trusted; worker-centred; connected; and resourced. Above all, a new Fair Work Agency (FWA) should seek to prevent exploitation before it takes place.
Ground breaking meeting between seasonal agricultural workers and decision makers
This Autumn WSC held a ground breaking meeting in partnership with seasonal agricultural workers and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery to consider how to safeguard workers on tied and temporary migration programmes.
Seasonal worker visa puts migrants at risk on UK farms
Seasonal worker visa puts migrants at risk on UK farms is the new article of the Open Democracy series on the risks of exploitation for workers on temporary migration programmes. Valeria Ragni, WSC Centre Manager, outlines how the issues experienced by workers on...
New article series on temporary migration programmes and risks of exploitation
On Tuesday, 22 October a new article series was launched by WSC Director Caroline Robinson and the Open Democracy Beyond Trafficking and Slavery site focussed on the risks posed to workers on temporary migration programmes in a range of global contexts.
EU Anti-trafficking day statement
Today on EU Anti-trafficking day we join our voice with that of other members of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) to promote a just and human rights-centred approach to combatting human trafficking. The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women...
The Worker Support Centre and Landworkers’ Alliance announce a new partnership in the fight for farm workers’ rights and dignity
The Worker Support Centre and the Landworkers’ Alliance are pleased to announce a new partnership in the fight for rights and dignity for farm workers recruited via the Seasonal Worker Scheme. This partnership will promote decent working conditions for migrant...
WSC publishes new briefing on seasonal worker accommodation
Through its support work WSC encounters a wide range of problems with seasonal worker housing. This Briefing seeks to address the gaps in standards and enforcement regimes to ensure workers have decent living standards and clear housing rights in law.
ITN reveals poor standards of seasonal worker housing and no government oversight
A new ITV News Investigation into seasonal worker housing finds workers living in uninhabitable conditions, paying high fees with no clear responsibility for oversight.
WSC launches mid-year report highlighting key safeguarding risks for workers
WSC launches its mid-year report of our casework supporting seasonal agricultural workers between January and July 2024.
Worker Support Centre: “Government must urgently establish standards for seasonal farm worker accommodation”
Following today’s ITN Investigation into seasonal worker accommodation in England and Scotland, the Worker Support Centre has called on both the UK and Scottish Governments to urgently clarify workers’ status in law with respect to this accommodation, and to establish minimum standards which it can be inspected against and held to.
NGOs call for the UK’s Seasonal worker visa scheme to be overhauled as scheme operator loses licence
Worker Support Centre alongside other NGOs have called on the UK government to re-think its seasonal worker visa (SWV) scheme to ensure that migrant agricultural workers are protected following a second labour provider, Ethero, losing their licence to sponsor workers...
Protecting workers on the UK’s Seasonal Worker Scheme: A call to action for the next government
The Seasonal Worker Interest Group today launches its call to action urging the next government to implement structural reforms to the Seasonal Worker Visa (SWV) scheme to better protect workers, who currently bear most of the risks embedded within the scheme. The...
WSC launches first-of-its-kind seasonal farm worker democratic accountability project
The Worker Support Centre (WSC) is embarking on a new project that will develop a worker-led model for seasonal farm workers to drive forward policy change. Thanks to the support of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the WSC will conduct ongoing participatory...
Letter on the Government response to the House of Lords Horticultural Sector Committee- Report of session 2022-23
The Worker Support Centre, together with other members of the Seaonal Worker Interest Group, have written to the House of Lords Horticultural Sector Committee to raise queries on aspects of the government response to the House of Lords Horticultural Sector Committee...
International Women’s Day and the data void surrounding migrant women farm workers experiences in the UK
Understanding migrant agricultural worker experiences in general is not something we’ve historically done well. Almost no evidence of seasonal agricultural workers experiences in the UK has been gathered in nearly 80 years of migrant workers filling such roles. But...
“Largest independent study ever” published on treatment of seasonal agricultural workers finds worker welfare and safeguarding concerns.
The Worker Support Centre (WSC), a non-profit organisation supporting migrant workers, today published data from work supporting seasonal agricultural workers in 2023.
New Seasonal Worker Interest Group launched to tackle exploitation in UK agriculture
Public statement announcing the new Seasonal Worker Interest Group.
Leaving the Seasonal Worker Scheme Taskforce
Worker Interest Group’s statement on leaving the Seasonal Worker Scheme Taskforce.
Unique support service launches for seasonal farm workers in rural Scotland
New support service launches for seasonal farm workers in Scotland. The Worker Support Centre today launched officially for the 2023 season.
WSC Service launch
Today the Worker Support Centre launches its services for migrants on the Seasonal Worker Visa.
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