Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS)

• The work available is clearly seasonal and agricultural in nature
• A minimum of 5 weeks work, including up to 39 hours of work per week, can be offered to each SAWS worker you wish to recruit, subject to the vagaries of weather. Many SAWS workers have traveled long distances to take part in the scheme and therefore a sufficient amount of work needs to be on offer to make participation worth their while
• You are able to provide clean and sanitary accommodation that is suitable for the number of SAWS workers you wish to recruit.
• Any SAWS workers you employ will be properly supervised particularly in relation to any Health and Safety Executive legislation and regulatory requirements relating to the safety of the working environment
• You are able to demonstrate that the work placements on offer provide for a safe working environment and have been properly risk assessed
• You do not unfairly discriminate against any prospective SAWS workers, for example, on the grounds of sex, race or disability. Full details of the scheme are available from the Border and Immigration Agency website

The scheme allows workers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and Romanians and Bulgarians to enter the United Kingdom to do seasonal agricultural work for farmers and growers.

This work is low skilled and includes:

• Planting and gathering crops
• On-farm processing and packing of crops (for example, salad vegetables, soft fruit, and flowers)
• Handling livestock (for example, lambing and on-farm poultry processing)

To be considered for receiving seasonal workers through the SAWS you will first need to contact one of the current Operators that can act on your behalf.

Not all can, and some cover a limited geographical area of the country.

If you are accepted on to the scheme your Operator will ask you to sign a formal written agreement that will establish the basis on which any SAWS workers are supplied. The Operator will issue to the worker an immigration employment document in the form of a valid Home Office work card.

As Operators administer the SAWS on behalf of the Border and immigration Agency, it is not possible to apply direct to the Border and Immigration Agency for approval to take part in the scheme.

SAWS Operators There are two types of Operators with which the Border and Immigration Agency contracts. These are as follows:

Multiple Operators - these organisations act on behalf of other farmers and growers only. They do not recruit SAWS participants to meet their own need for seasonal labour.

Sole Operators - these organisations are farmers and growers in their own right.  They act on their own behalf  only, meeting their own need for seasonal labour.

Participants must be a minimum of 18 years of age and must be on a course of full time education in their home country (for Romanian and Bulgarian nationals the student restriction has been lifted). They can take part in the scheme for a minimum of five weeks and a maximum of six months at a time. They are expected to leave the UK when permission to stay is finished, and must return to resume their full time course of study.

They may apply for the scheme again after three months outside the UK if they continue to satisfy Home Office requirements.

There is no requirement for Bulgarians or Romanians to leave the UK at the end of their placement, but they would still have to observe the three-month break before obtaining further SAWS employment. 

In return for the service provided Operators will charge a fee to the farmers and growers that they represent. The amount varies between Operators and it is for farmers and growers to determine which Operator they wish to work with, based on the level of service they receive.

SAWS participants may also be required to pay certain costs and/or (refundable) deposits associated with their placement. These are publicised by each Operator, who is required to make them known to the participant before agreeing the placement.