Farm pay to be deregulated

INTERNATIONAL minimum standards of pay and holidays for farmworkers are to be abandoned by the Government, Gillian Shephard, the Minister for Agriculture, disclosed last night, writes Patricia Wynn Davies.

The decision to denounce International Labour Organisation Conventions 99 and 101 - announced without fanfare in a Commons written reply - is certain to pave the way for the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Boards, which set basic UK standards.

Gavin Strang, shadow agriculture minister, said the move was a 'shocking attack on some of the lowest-paid (minimum pounds 145.09 per week) workers in the land'. He added: 'It is a terrible indictment of our low-wage, high-exploitation economy that the Government refused to meet the same standards as countries like Colombia, Malawi and Papua New Guinea.'