When Kevin came from Uzbekistan to work on Scottish farms, he encountered problems that had no solution. He got involved with a new organisation representing, engaging, and mobilising temporary migrant workers, established by Caroline Robinson. They address the challenge of building agricultural workers’ power in Scotland.

Seasonal Workers Are Claiming the Space to Address the Issues That Affect Us

By Kevin (author’s chosen pseudonym).

I chose to come to the United Kingdom to work and earn. I also wanted to visit this country, meet people from all backgrounds, and exchange ideas with them. I had very good relationships with other workers, we played sports together and spent time together after work. Despite coming from all over the world we overcame language barriers. But I was upset by the way the farm owners treated us. They were rude to the seasonal workers and punished us for raising objections or complaints.

I contacted the Worker Support Centre (WSC) in August 2024 when I was trying to move farm because of the conditions I faced. This included not being paid for the hours I worked. I have since worked with WSC and other workers to raise the issues we faced, and last autumn I joined a meeting with the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of Slavery (UNSR) and the Scottish Government because I wanted to make change for others. At the event I shared how isolated I felt from Scottish communities. I had thought we would be provided with transport to supermarkets and local services by the farm, but when I arrived, I was told that this was not possible. Instead that return trip took a whole day by public transport.

Ukraine was initially a primary source country for workers on the scheme, but since the Russian invasion in 2022, recruiters have mainly looked to Central Asian countries with a history of migration to Russia, primarily Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. In Uzbekistan the competition for this visa is high, and when I was applying there was a server overload due to the high internet traffic of tens of thousands of people trying to access it.

My Experiences

I came to the UK on the Seasonal Work Visa (SWV) and was assigned to a farm in Scotland doing various agricultural jobs. I didn’t have a specific position because the employer would assign tasks each night and our supervisor would let us know where we were supposed to go. I worked in the packhouse, in the blueberry tunnel and harvesting various vegetables. To begin with everything was fine, but as time went on problems started to emerge. Whilst we had good relationships between workers of all nationalities, the relations with the farm owners were not good. They were a bit rude in their communications with the workers, which I didn’t like. If you were dissatisfied with something, they would give you a harsh answer. There were cases when workers who objected were out of work for several days. You couldn’t express your opinion. This happened to me too. Whilst the Home Office guidance states that farms must provide workers with 32 hours work per week, the farm owners punished us by making us miss work for several days.

I was exposed to many ways of operating in this sector. Towards the end of the harvest on my farm, I was transported to work on other farms. The treatment on some of those farms was much better, but my employment was tied so I was unable to move without a transfer. As time went on, I observed three main problems based on my own experiences and those of my co-workers: firstly the accounting of hours seemed to be confused, with farms calculating hours in a way that served them; secondly there were major barriers for workers moving from one farm to another, the “transfer process”;¹ and thirdly some farms had a poor attitude towards seasonal workers. My work time was only paid when I was picking, and there were times when I spent 12-13 hours at work and was paid for eight. When I raised this with my employer I was told “If you don’t like it, you can leave.” It was clear to me that they did not want to resolve issues, nor did they care about the conditions workers faced. At least seven or eight people I knew decided to leave, some of them to work illegally, and it was clear why.

I soon realised that the farm transfer process was my only option yet found that this was effectively closed to me. My visa sponsor had lost their license to operate from the Home Office during my stay, and so I was left without a sponsor for at least a month. This meant, whilst I wanted to move farm to find an employer that complied with the law on pay, I could not apply to move until that issue was resolved. When I finally received notification of my new visa sponsor, I tried to make an application to move farm but was told my messages were blocked. I could not make contact and so sought help through WSC who helped me reach my sponsor. Once we finally made contact, I was told it was too late in the season for me to transfer to a new farm.

Workers I knew were afraid to speak out about their problems because they were afraid of losing their jobs. When workers face issues, such as I did, we have few options available; I ultimately sought help through a journalist who gave me the contact for WSC. With help from the WSC I decided to report my problem of non-payment for hours worked to the authorities. This has been a difficult and drawn-out process, which I would not have been able to navigate without Valeria at WSC. I am still awaiting a resolution.

I think the existence of organisations like WSC is very useful because not all migrants who come for seasonal work are aware of their rights. Attending the event with the UNSR and Scottish Government last Autumn was a surprise to me. Before I came to the UK, I had not even thought about speaking in front of the UN Special Rapporteur, Scottish Government officials, legal experts or civil society organisations. I gladly accepted this offer and felt pleased and inspired by what Valeria and WSC do for seasonal workers and workers in the UK in general.

I believe that when we see a problem, we need to talk about it. Because with more public attention, change will come. It is particularly important for workers themselves to talk about their problems, so that people really understand. It is for this reason that I decided to speak.

The Work of Building Workers’ Power

By Caroline Robinson.

The Worker Support Centre (WSC) works to promote decent work, prevent exploitation, provide support to isolated and marginalised workers, and build worker power to seek workplace changes, policy enforcement, and wider policy changes. It seeks to tackle the barriers that prevent workers from organising and to act as a bridge to trade unions. In 2024, the Worker Support Centre (WSC) supported 697 people in relation to seasonal agricultural work, both in their countries of origin and in the UK. Most were based in Scotland

Our Worker Power programme, led by staff with lived experience of seasonal migrant agricultural work, brings workers together to socialise, discuss their rights and experiences, and build a picture of the changes they want to see. 58 workers joined these sessions in 2024. The Worker Power programme also supports workers to influence policy debate, including, in Autumn 2024, through supporting a meeting between workers, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery (UNSR), and the Scottish Government. One of the workers who joined that meeting, Kevin, shares his perspective in the accompanying article. The present article sets out the wider context of the WSC’s work.

The UK’s Temporary Migration Scheme: Seasonal Worker Visas

In 2019 the UK Government introduced a new immigration visa, the Seasonal Worker visa, for seasonal horticulture and then, in 2022, for poultry. This visa – otherwise known as the SWV – is sponsored by a single labour provider, which connects workers to an agricultural workplace. The SWV is temporary and only valid for a maximum of 6 months in horticulture or 2.5 months in poultry, yet many workers return annually. It has no minimum language requirement; few workers speak English and workers are often geographically isolated and marginalised from wider society. Whilst this visa was initially designed as a quick fix to immediate labour challenges posed by Brexit, it has grown from an initial quota of 2500 places in 2019, to 45,000 in 2025. This February the UK Government decided to extend the scheme at this level to 2030.² The WSC has advocated for the previous and current government to meet workers to discuss their experiences of the SWV and to hear the changes they recommend. UK Government Ministers have consistently refused to do so.

Mind The Gap: The Absence of Temporary Migrant Worker Representation by Trade Unions

The SWV has significantly increased the risk of human trafficking for forced labour in seasonal agricultural work.³ Despite the risks the SWV poses to workers, very few of the migrant agricultural workers who come to Scotland are represented by trade unions.⁴ Barriers to trade union representation include the temporary presence of workers in the UK, the cost of trade union membership, the fact that many legal services are not immediately available upon membership, and the absence of proactive organising work by trade unions on farms. Scotland’s agricultural policy-setting body, the tripartite Scottish Agricultural Wages Board (SAWB) which produces the Agricultural Wages Order (AWO) setting wages and working conditions for agricultural workers, includes six spots for workers in its composition. These are currently appointed by Unite and do not yet include temporary migrant agricultural workers.⁵

The Worker Support Centre: Learning by Example

Alternative models of temporary migrant worker representation from around the world provide examples of what could be achieved in Scotland. Research into models in Ireland, Germany, Brazil and Canada highlights five key principles for temporary migrant worker representation and power.⁶ These are grassroots engagement to mobilise workers, direct support to meet basic needs, trade union flexibility to workers’ needs, government engagement with workers, and the use of participatory and inclusive approaches. This work helped WSC identify a model for Scotland, where so few temporary migrant workers are represented by trade unions.⁷

The WSC supports and advocates for isolated and marginalised migrant workers in sectors where there is a high risk of exploitation. Its Early Exploitation Prevention Model not only provides workers with immediate and long-term support but also serves as a bridge to trade union engagement. Its activities span:

Support: supporting people to have their basic needs met through our direct service provision.

Literacy: developing migrant worker understanding of their rights and entitlements and building support networks between migrant workers to foster solidarity.

Power: growing migrant worker power and influence in all spheres, supporting migrant workers to claim and create spaces for change and connecting this work to the trade union movement.

Deterrence: supporting workers to access state enforcement, and building capacity of labour market enforcement agencies to support migrant workers, and

Influence: developing migrant worker led policy priorities and supporting migrant workers to create spaces for change.

As WSC engages workers during 2025 we invite trade unions to join us, work alongside us in outreach, and support and build worker power, to ensure that one day workers in seasonal agriculture like Kevin will be unionised and collectively articulating their case for change.

Kevin is an Uzbek national who spent five months working in Scottish horticulture on the UK Seasonal Worker Visa (SWV) in 2024. This is his chosen pseudonym.

Caroline Robinson is the Executive Director of the Worker Support Centre. She has 15 years’ experience working to promote labour rights and prevent labour exploitation at the Scottish, UK and global levels.

1. Workers are not entitled to change employer or workplace of their own initiative. Transfers are the sole mechanism within the SWV that enable workers to leave difficult or high-risk employment and must be requested from the licensed Scheme Operators that recruit and supply workers to farms and sponsor a workers’ visa. The Home Office SWV Guidance to Scheme Operators provides that transfer requests should be made by workers to Scheme Operators, and must not normally be refused. See Home Office 2025 Workers and Temporary Workers: guidance for sponsors Sponsor a Seasonal Worker. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67658554ff2c870561bde990/Sponsor-a-Seasonal-Worker-01-25-v1.0.pdf ↩︎
2. Horton H 25 February 2025 UK’s seasonal farm worker scheme to be extended for five years. The Guardian. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/25/uks-seasonal-farm-worker-scheme-to-be-extended-for-five-years#:~:text=When%20the%20scheme%20was%20due,be%20going%20ahead%20in%202025. ↩︎
3. See FLEX and FMF 2021 Assessment of the risks of human trafficking for forced labour on the UK Seasonal Workers’ Pilot. FLEX, London. ↩︎
4. Ibid. ↩︎
5. See Scottish Government 2025 Scottish Agricultural Wages Board. Available at https://www.gov.scot/groups/scottish-agricultural-wages-board/ ↩︎
6. Robinson C 2022 Temporary migrant worker representation and power. Available at https://static1.squarespace.com/static/63048fa292a1a957b64ea9d0/t/633d8d93e572f23c7d694244/1664978327734/Robinson_APlanforScotland_22.pdf ↩︎
7. Theodoropoulos P 25 February 2021 Trade unions have failed migrant workers. To remedy this we need serious self-criticism. Available at https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2021/02/25/trade-unions-have-failed-migrant-workers-to-remedy-this-we-need-serious-self-criticism/ ↩︎