Three additional seasonal labour scheme operators were granted licences in January, bringing the total working in horticulture to six. The expansion was promised in December when the government also increased the number of seasonal labour visas to at least 45,000 for 2023.
Agri-HR was established in 2018 by Jan-Willem Naerebout, an Association of Labour Providers council member. The former S&A Produce operations director was involved in setting up what he describes as an industry-leading ethical recruitment process for seasonal workers from eastern Europe.
Based in Hereford, Agri-HR is recruiting across a range of countries outside the EU including Moldova, North Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
HOPS Labour Solutions was founded in 1989 by the National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs. It is recruiting across a similar range of countries and says it has a ‘fundamentally different model’ for operating the scheme, to ‘address the challenges which have occurred in recent years.’
Ethero has been operating for 13 years sourcing labour for horticulture and other sectors. “Ethero led the first successful multi-agency consortium bid for a scheme licence,” said managing director Gareth Hughes. “Ethero will be the supplier to all customers as per the terms of the licence. But this will be under the trading name TELPASC – The Ethical Labour Provider and Skills Consortium – as we will have other GLAA-licensed, UK-based agencies working with us to enable initial client relationships.
“Within our consortium we have members that are GLAA-licensed recruitment operators in Croatia, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and we will be primarily recruiting from there.”
In its announcement on expanding the scheme, the government said up to 10,000 further visas would be made available this season if necessary, but linked any such increase to seeing evidence that the industry was raising worker welfare standards and reducing exploitation risks.
Scheme operators say they are aware of cases in some source countries of ‘third parties’ claiming to be part of the scheme, offering job seekers the chance to work and requesting money to register. They are taking steps to ensure potential recruits are made aware such offers are outside the scheme.
In addition to the three new licensees, Concordia, Fruitful Jobs and Pro-Force will continue as seasonal worker scheme operators for horticulture. The scheme itself is due to be reviewed by the government at the end of 2024.
