The Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU) has heavily criticised Unite the Union for making a 'number of inaccuracies' after it called on farm workers to defend the Agriculture Wages Board.
A public consultation was launched earlier this year on proposals to abolish the Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) in Northern Ireland.
Farming minister Edwin Poots announced the plans, saying there was 'little justification' for the industry to have 'special considerations of a wage board'.
The AWB, established 80 years ago, sets minimum rates of pay and conditions for farm workers.
However, various pieces of legislation had been introduced that 'greatly improved' the level of protection afforded to workers, Mr Poots said.
Unite the Union has since launched a paper ‘Stormont Hands off our Farm Workers – Defend and Expand the AWB’ in response to the move.
Unite, the second largest trade union in the UK, said agricultural field workers were 'often subject to the most oppressive conditions of employment'.
In the paper, it claimed the UFU, which favours abolishing the board, 'don't seem to care that abolishing the AWB threatens to remove protections for many small farmers and their family members'.
Unite added that these small farmers were 'forced by economic necessity, to work on other farms or elsewhere in the industry'.
But the UFU said the paper was 'misleading' and called for Unite to withdraw a 'number of inaccuracies which skew the debate' on the abolition of the AWB.
UFU-lead AWB representative Robert McCloy said: “The misleading tone of the paper is an attempt to discredit farmers in the eyes of the public.
"The fact that it’s introduction incorrectly states that the UFU colluded with Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots because he is a member of the UFU, which he is not.
“The biggest issue is that Unite are questioning the integrity and thereby the reputation of our members who employ labour when they say that by abolishing the AWB, this will leave farm workers at the mercy of ‘unscrupulous employers,’” he said.
The UFU said Unite's claim that the abolition of the AWB would give rise to criminal practices including people trafficking and modern slavery was 'preposterous and false'.
Proponents of abolishing the AWB say workers will be protected under the National Minimum Wage Regulation, as is every other sector in the local economy.
DAERA also has a separate sponsorship branch for the Gangmaster and Labour Authority (GLAA) in Northern Ireland and in terms of enforcement, the GLAA has two Enforcement Officers based in NI.
In its paper, Unite also alleged that the UFU ‘champions the interests of big ranchers and the agri-food bosses’.
Mr McCloy said the UFU 'refutes this openly' as the farmers' union 'represents the best interests of all sized farms in Northern Ireland.'
"The comment is laughable when you consider our track record in challenging processors to pay the best price for our members, the primary producers,” he said.
The document states that the UFU has urged for the abolition of the AWB since 1909, something Mr McCloy said was 'not true nor possible because it was only established in 1918'.
“In conclusion, the language and the tone of this paper has damaged relations between the UFU and Unite," he added.
"We will continue to call for the abolition of the outdated AWB and would urge MLAs to consider the facts rather than the inaccurate statements littered throughout the Unite paper.”
