The supreme court ruling humiliates Tories and give Welsh Labour another reason to be proud

Agricultural work is tough and dangerous – it often involves backbreaking jobs, carried out over long hours and has some of the highest fatality and injury rates of any industry.

That is why Wednesday’s ruling at the Supreme Court to uphold the Welsh Labour Government’s decision to keep the Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) in Wales was a vital victory for agricultural workers.

There could be few starker contrasts of the different values of the Labour Party and the Tories than the debate over the AWB.

In the spring of 2013 the Tories dealt a huge blow to thousands of rural workers, when they slashed the board that protected the pay and conditions for 152,000 people across England and Wales – it was also used as a benchmark for others employed across the food industry.  The government’s own statistics showed that over 10 years scrapping the AWB would take £260 million out of pockets of low paid agricultural workers, dealing a significant blow to the rural economy as a result.

The remit of the AWB went beyond wage protection, it also set out limited minimum standards for the accommodation that is offered to many agricultural workers.  Over 30,000 workers were extended this kind of protection and it hardly guaranteed a luxurious home.  In fact the standards were simply that the accommodation be fit for human habitation, provide every worker with a bed for their sole use, offer suitable and sufficient free drinking water and sanitation, while being safe and secure.  This doesn’t exactly conjure up images of a suite at the Ritz.

Yet at a stroke the Tories stripped away these basic protections that afforded a degree of dignity to hard working women and men across rural Britain.

That is why I am proud that the Welsh Labour Government made the decision to stand up for social justice and Labour values in Wales, by legislating to reinstate the AWB.

However, the UK Tory government were so determined to cut the wages of low paid agricultural workers that they took the Welsh Labour Government to the Supreme Court in a bid to block the legislation.  After months of legal wrangling and a small fortune wasted on legal costs, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Welsh Labour Government and paved the way for a Welsh AWB.

The decision was a huge victory for Labour in Wales and a real humiliation for the Tories nationally.  However, the biggest winners were agricultural workers in Wales who were granted the protection and dignity their hard work warrants.

The truth is that this issue should never have got to the Supreme Court.  It was a waste of time and money, which David Jones, the Secretary of State for Wales, should apologise for without delay.  But the Tories are so ideologically zealous they allowed their passion for low pay and watered down workers rights to cloud their vision.  And it’s not the first time this has happened, this is the second occasion that the Supreme Court have been brought in to settle a dispute over the legal remit of the Welsh Labour Government – on both occasions they have ruled in favour of Wales.

In order to clear up this situation and prevent the Tories attempting to needlessly hold up legislation it’s time to follow Labour’s plan to move to a clearer devolution settlement, by shifting to a ‘reserved powers’ model.  In a nutshell, this would mean that powers are assumed to be devolved to the Welsh Assembly unless specifically reserved to the UK Parliament.  Thus stopping a Tory Secretary of State from continually referring Welsh legislation to the Supreme Court.  Ed Miliband promised it at Welsh Labour conference this year and it’s the only sensible way forward for Welsh devolution.

This was a good week to be a member of Welsh Labour and the fight over the AWB shows in the starkest of terms why delivering Labour governments is so important.  So let’s get on with making sure we turn the rest of the country red in 2015.

Owen Smith is Shadow Secretary of State for Wales