You Wages and Payment
You You will receive upon arrival a contract which will state
hours of work, how much you will be paid, details of
holiday and sick pay as well as pay entitlement for bad
weather. The current Agricultural Minimum Wage Rate
(AWB) for Standard Workers is £5.81 for 39 hours
and £8.72 overtime. For skilled work you will be paid a
higher rate. You will be entitled to 30 days holiday per
annum including Bank Holiday. Most manual harvesting
positions are paid on piece rate basis,this means you
will be set a target depending on the crop and field
you are working in. If you do not reach the target your
wages will be topped up to meet the National Minimum
Wage but you may not be offered anymore work.
Once you start picking the targets which are set you
will earn above the minimum wage.
"When picking fruit on piece work, a picker
can earn anything between £150 - £450+
a week depending on how good of a
picker you are"
Hours may vary according to cropping and weather
conditions and can change daily but your contracted
hours should be adherered to. You are here as an
overseas Seasonal Agricultural Workers participant
and can only work on the placement stated on your
Work Card and the work you do must be seasonal.
You will be subject to pay Income Tax and National
Insurance just like any other worker in the UK.
Workers will not be subject to pay PAYE
(pay as you earn) which is used to deduct Income
Tax and National Insurance (NIC's) Your Personal
Tax Allowance is £6475 but if you are a student
and sign a P46's but you most likely will have
Income Tax as you will earn above the Personal
Allowance but you can claim it back when you
leave the farm using your P45 which you will
recieve from your employer.
It may be possible for Sastak to help you set
up a bank account in this country in which
case payment will may be made to you directly
into the account weekly. Payment can also
be made into your overseas account on a monthly
basis to reduce bank charges, which you will be
liable for. We recommend these methods as
carrying too much cash is unadvisable.
Further agricultural wage information, please see
www.defra.gov.uk/farm/working/agwages/index.htm