SCOTTISH Land and Estates and the NFU Scotland have welcomed the decision by the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board (SAWB) to change the effective date of annual changes to the Scottish agricultural minimum wage rate.
The SAWB has taken the decision to delay its annual wage negotiations until later in the year in order to align it with the new timeframe for the national minimum wage and national living wage changes. This means that no new agricultural wages order will be published until April 1, 2017.
The SAWB normally meets in June each year to negotiate the minimum agricultural wage and other terms of conditions to take effect from October 1. This date used to coincide with an annual change to the national minimum wage.