EU farm unions have called for a shake-up of the rules on social security contributions for seasonal agricultural workers.

Current rules stipulate that the employer pays the social security contribution of each of the seasonal workers in his or her country of residence, which tends to be the workers' country of origin. This creates problems for employers who are confronted with excess bureaucracy.

But many employers must rely on European migrants because they cannot cope with the amount of labour provided by the national workforce only – it is estimated that five million European agricultural workers cross Europe every year to work.

The Employers Group of Professional Agricultural Organisations in the EU (Geopa-Copa) are hoping to start a debate on improving the rules.

In the letter sent to EU Employment Commissioner Thyssen, Gopa-Copa president Chris Botterman said “The application of current rules is not possible for employers of cross-national seasonal workers due to the enormous administrative burden that this implies. Farmers want to comply with the rules but the rules need to be feasible.”