The Seasonal and fair employment blueprints (SaFE) project held an expert workshop for EU Member States on 10-11 June, focusing on promoting ethical recruitment and decent living and working conditions for seasonal migrant workers in the EU. This is part of the project’s objective to support Member States in enhancing their existing seasonal work schemes for non-EU workers, or creating new schemes, in line with the EU Seasonal workers Directive.
As Europe heads into the peak summer holiday season and the farming season is well underway, seasonal workers continue to play an indispensable role in the continent’s tourism and agriculture industries. Since 2014, the EU Seasonal workers Directive has provided the legal framework for non-EU nationals to take up temporary work across Member States. By 2019, all Member States had transposed it into national law, and the growth since then has been significant: in 2024, nearly 274,000 permits were issued across the EU, up from 116,000 in 2019.
At the same time, the experiences of Member States in designing, implementing, and overseeing their seasonal work schemes have varied. While seasonal work has provided opportunities for employers in the agriculture and tourism sectors, for migrants seeking work in the EU, and for consumers and tourists in the EU, as the recent European Commission report evaluating its implementation highlights; obstacles remain to realising ethical recruitment as well as dignified living and working conditions for workers.
To facilitate mutual learning and support concrete action, ICMPD convened a group of experts from eight EU Member States. They shared their experiences regarding operational challenges and effective practices, with a particular focus on ethical recruitment, pre-departure information and services, decent living and working conditions, and employer compliance. Some of the key highlights:
- Enforcement of ethical recruitment: With numerous actors involved in the recruitment of seasonal workers across Member States, ethical recruitment can become challenging to monitor and enforce. Government-to-government recruitment models led by public employment services are being explored in several countries to promote fair and transparent processes.
- Access to information: Clear, accessible information empowers (prospective) migrant workers to know their rights, understand contracts and procedures, and seek assistance or file complaints. Many EU Member States already display positive practices to reach workers and disseminate information, though gaps remain, such as providing information on channels to access legal aid.
- Coordination across ministries: More horizontal policymaking can help close gaps that persist in the monitoring and inspection of different aspects of employer compliance, in addressing labour violations, and in assisting migrant workers.
- The role of trade unions and NGOs: Social actors play a vital role in establishing trust with migrant workers who might fear reporting abuses to government institutions. Encouraging these actors to operate in this space can be crucial to promoting decent living and working conditions of seasonal workers.
- Incentives for compliance: Increasingly, good practices are emerging across Member States in providing incentives to employers, rewarding compliant behaviour with financial incentives (such as access to grants or subsidies) as well as reputational ones (certifications or positive press).
What’s next?
The challenges and good practices discussed during the workshop, along with other stakeholder engagement and research, will inform the creation of two blueprints: one for the agriculture, horticulture, and forestry sectors, and another for the tourism sector. These blueprints, to be published later this year, will provide operational guidance for governments looking across the entire migration cycle, highlight common challenges, and showcase good practices from the EU and beyond. This guidance will help authorities to address specific gaps and roadblocks, build robust initiatives from scratch, or enhance existing processes.
The SaFE technical assistance project is supported by the EU and commissioned though the Migration Partnership Facility (MPF).