The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the ministry responsible for the Seasonal Worker visa scheme. The Seasonal Worker Scheme Taskforce is a multi-stakeholder initiative set up in 2022 by the supermarket retailers and Defra following controversies and alleged modern slavery in UK seasonal agriculture.

Reason for engagement

In 2022, following news stories about the exploitation of seasonal agricultural workers coming from Indonesia, Nepal and Central Asian republics to pick fruit and vegetables in the UK, CCLA drafted a public statement calling for (among other things) UK supermarkets to implement the Employer Pays Principle in UK agriculture. This is a human rights concept that asserts that migrant workers should not be charged recruitment fees in order to secure a job. The statement was co-signed by 10 global investors.

What we did

Subsequently, CCLA met the Ministers of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs for the Conservative and Labour governments to raise our concerns, with our latest meeting held in March 2025 with Daniel Zeichner. We have been invited to participate in the Seasonal Worker Scheme Taskforce as the sole investor voice and took part in a working group undertaking a Defra supported feasibility study on implementing the Employer Pays Principle.

Outcomes

The feasibility study was published in September 2025. CCLA’s Dame Sara Thornton was interviewed for the BBC’s File on 4 Investigates programme about our work to protect the UK’s migrant seasonal workers from exploitation and our engagement with supermarkets and policymakers to implement the Employer Pays Principle.

Supermarkets and the government continue to consider their response in the context of the rising cost of living and a policy environment that is hostile to migrants. As Dame Sara said on File on 4 Investigates, ‘Supermarkets have been part of the Seasonal Worker Scheme Taskforce for years. Several of the supermarkets in the UK have made public commitments to the Employer Pays Principle but we are now at a key inflection moment. This is a key test of their commitment.’