Unite has written to Tacon, the recently appointed groceries code a adjudicator, asking her to investigate four aspects of the supermarket bosses’ relationships with farmers and growers.
Unite is fighting to retain the Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) which has protected the incomes of 150,000 agricultural workers since the Second World War.
Unite sees the hand of the major supermarkets behind the government’s plan to abolish the AWB, and, as a result, drive down workers’ wages to poverty levels and increasing the supermarkets’ already handsome profits.
Unite wants the four-pronged probe to include:
Unite national officer for rural and agriculture, Julia Long said: “This is the first big test for Christine Tacon and will reveal if the new ombudsman has real teeth to right injustices and inequalities in the major supermarkets’ relationships with their suppliers which, in turn, impacts, currently adversely, on those working on the land.”
Source: Unite
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