Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

Debate between Lord Myners and Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

Wednesday 16th January 2013 Grand Committee

[Lord Myners]

I sense that the noble Earl is coming to the close of his comments. I want to remind him that he said he would answer the point raised by my noble friend Lord Hunt of Kings Heath; namely, that the higher grades are not protected by the national minimum wage. The noble Earl said he had an answer, and I think that the Committee is looking forward to hearing it.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath]

Perhaps I can help my noble friend. I am referring to grades 1 to 6: grade 6 is the farm management grade and the rate is £14.10 an hour; grade 5, which is the supervisory grade, is £13.05 an hour; and grade 4, the craft grade, which I suspect is the grade that the noble Lord has in mind, is £12.32 an hour, which on a 37-hour week comes to £22,000 a year. I really do not understand what he is saying.

[Earl Cathcart]

The noble Lord did raise a question and I did say that I would come back to it. This is all about the competitive market. I said before that one has to attract people with skills into farming and to pay a higher rate according to those skills, and that is exactly where I am; you have to pay a higher rate of salary—not a higher rate per hour—to the person with the greatest skills, and it is the competitive market that determines that price, which is normally higher than the Agricultural Wages Board rates.

I said that the board is irrelevant to today’s employment markets. It is outdated, working in hourly wage rates not salaries. Those who need an hourly rate are protected by the national minimum wage, and if the Agricultural Wages Board disappeared tomorrow I do not believe that most employers and employees would notice. Those who did would, I believe, breathe a sigh of relief as it would reduce the administrative burden on farmers and their advisers.

The noble Lords opposite have all argued strongly for the board’s retention, but they had 13 years in office to change, modernise and bring the Agricultural Wages Board into the 21st century. They chose to do nothing.