Fighting for fair pay

This is a board which has tried repeatedly to regulate the wages of workers in the agricultural and horticultural industries and to suggest to employers the necessity of paying a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

Without this institution in place, the way is open for less-ethical employers to exploit an historically low-paid sector of the workforce, of which there are many thousands employed in the local area.

I would urge people involved in these industries write to their local MP to show their disapproval of the government’s action and also sign a petition on the web ite

www.backtheapple.com

Without recommendations from the AWB, wages in these notoriously low-paid industries are likely to stagnate instead of rising in line with inflation.

No-one wants to return to an era of mid-Victorian poverty where food is produced at the expense of an underpaid but skilful workforce, who work long hours in all weathers for less than the minimum wage.

It is up to us all to call for regulation in these industries in order that vulnerable workers are not exploited.

Mrs HG Spencer,

Woodgate Park,

Woodgate,

Chichester