A WELSH dairy farmer is calling for a review on policies for employing foreign workers after the Home Office rejected his application to become a licensed sponsor.

Fraser Jones has a staff of 35 full-time and part-time workers at Calcourt Farms, in Powys, to help manage the herd of 1,350 Holstein Friesians.

He previously 18 Polish staff on his payroll but only 10 of those were able to secure settled status to allow them to continue living and working in Wales after Brexit.

Mr Jones applied to the Home Office to register for the right to sponsor overseas workers but this was turned down.

“I was advised that I was not eligible for a sponsor licence using this route,’’ he said.

In a letter from Sponsor Casework Operations, the government department dealing with applications, he was advised that individual employers and organisations are not eligible for a sponsor licence through this scheme, even if they are licensed as a sponsor on other schemes.

“To be allowed to apply for a licence to sponsor seasonal workers you must be an overarching body (scheme operator) which is endorsed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to be an approved scheme operator, and licensed by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority,’’ the letter stated.

Mr Jones suggests the rules must be reviewed.

“I am a large business with a workforce of 35 but under the current rules the business isn’t considered big enough to qualify as a sponsor so I must use an agency,’’ he said.

“When you go through an agency they take a cut, there are too many people taking a slice of the cake in agriculture as it is and here is another opportunity for people to live off the backs of farmers.’’

He set out a case for a policy change when Home Secretary Priti Patel recently visited his farm and hopes she will take his comments on board.

“The government needs to realise that if it wants the supermarket shelves kept full our industry must have a reliable source of labour,’’ he said.

Mr Jones said staffing in his business has become a “logistical nightmare’’ since Brexit because many of the new British workers he has been able to recruit only want to work limited hours.

“It is a continual challenge, I am spending much more time dealing with rotas and other staffing issues and it is adding more cost to the business.

“There is a major labour shortage in agriculture which the government wasn’t aware of when it came up with its foreign worker schemes, in light of that shortage the government must review those schemes.’’

A spokesman for the Home Office responded that, as dairy work was not classed as seasonal, it would not fall within the auspices of the Seasonal Workers Pilot.

This was also an operator-led arrangement, with third-party organisations licensed to recruit suitable workers and place them with UK growers in the edible horticulture sector only.

“These scheme operators are specifically prohibited from sourcing workers for their own use,” the spokesman added.