UNITE has stepped up its campaign to stop Government plans to scrap the Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) in England and Wales.

At a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat party conference in Liverpool on Tuesday, the union appealed to party members to veto the proposals.

Unite represents more than 150,000 rural and agricultural workers and says the AWB has guaranteed minimum pay rates and working conditions for agricultural workers since the First World War.

Ian Waddell, Unite national officer for rural and agricultural workers, said: “Even the Thatcher and Major governments didn’t go as far as scrapping the board, recognising that rural workers need protection if food supplies are to be secure.

“Unite finds it hard to believe that grassroots Lib Dems would support the abolition of a pay structure that was introduced by Lloyd George almost a century ago, which protects skilled farm workers in rural parts of Britain, many of which fall within Lib Dem constituencies.”

Unite was particularly angry that the Coalition Government announced the decision without any consultation.

Mr Waddell said: “They just announced their intention to sweep something away that has supported workers for generations. This Government pledged to be fair, but where is the fairness to rural workers?”

Caroline Spellman, Defra Secretary of State, announced the decision to scrap the AWB in July.

She said agricultural workers would be covered by the national minimum wages act.

In response to a parliamentary question Jim Paice, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food, said the abolition would require amendments to legislation and would therefore be subject to parliamentary debate and scrutiny.

Discussions would be held with interested parties about the practical approaches to wage-setting in agriculture and how workers could best be informed of their contractual rights in the future.

Peter Kendall, president of the National Farmers’ Union, has welcomed the proposed abolition, saying it would be a relief to many farmers and growers who had struggled with its complexity.

However, the Trades Union Congress has opposed the plan as have Labour leadership candidate Ed Miliband and shadow agriculture secretary Hilary Benn.

In a letter to MPs, Nigel Costley, TUC south-west regional secretary, said farm workers could be worse off without the AWB.

He described the decision as hasty and something which would hurt some of the lowest paid and most vulnerable workers in the country.

The Scottish government has no plans to scrap its agricultural wages board, which has announced an increase in the hourly minimum wage for farm workers from October 1.

However, the Scottish NFU hopes the board will be scrapped when it is reviewed next year.

● Unite’s “Save Rural Britain”

fringe meeting at the Lib Deb conference also highlighted what it believes will be “disastrous consequences”

that wider Coalition Government cuts will have on rural communities across Britain.