Employment Rights Bill: will new unfair dismissal rules help seasonal workers?

Having spent the best part of two years reporting on the exploitation, bullying and wage theft suffered by seasonal workers on British farms, one of my first thoughts when the government published its new Employment Rights Bill was whether it would better protect them.

Arguably one of the bill’s most significant reforms is its extension of unfair dismissal rights. As it stands, you need to have worked for an employer for at least two years before you’re fully protected against unfair dismissal. The seasonal worker visa expires after six months.

Unfair dismissal is an increasingly common complaint from seasonal workers, according to the Worker Support Centre, which cites the current two-year threshold as a major barrier in being able to offer help.

The new proposals will remove this restriction and instead bring in probation periods. But it is unclear whether these reforms will protect tens of thousands of people who come to the UK each year on short-term visas for agricultural work.

The length of this probation period – after which it would be harder for an employer to dismiss someone – is one of various details that will be subject to consultation. But the government’s preference is nine months. People who come to the UK on the seasonal worker visa, though, are in their job for six months at most.

There is no government body that ensures employers abide by laws around unfair dismissal. If a worker thinks they have been unfairly sacked, they can take their former employer to the employment tribunal – but that can be arduous, lengthy and expensive.

The new bill may yet improve the outlook for seasonal workers, as is desperately needed. But it will do nothing to fix the root cause of the problem: a short-term visa which gives their employer outsized power to decide where they work, if they work, and even whether they stay in the country.