Information for SAWS (Romanian & Bulgarian) applicants

If you are a national from Romania or Bulgaria the information below will apply to you.

The Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS) allows for the admission of seasonal workers from Bulgaria and Romania only using a work card system. Applicants are admitted for a maximum of six months to do seasonal agricultural work for farmers and growers.

The scheme is run for the Home Office by Operators who recruit suitable people and place them on farms. The Operator may need to transfer you to other farms during your stay.

Concordia is one of the largest operators of the SAWS scheme.
To be eligible for employment as a seasonal agricultural worker you must:

• Be over 18 years of age at the time of starting work on the scheme
• Live in Bulgaria or Romania
• Enter only the employment detailed on your work card

Individuals may participate in the scheme on more than one occasion provided they undertake a minimum break of three months between periods of participation, and they abide by the rules concerning their immigration status.
The work you are applying for is low skilled and includes the following:

• Planting and gathering crops
• No-farm processing and packing of crops (salad vegetables, soft fruit, flowers)
• Handling livestock (lambing and on-farm poultry processing).
• Picking and packing fruit and vegetables (beans, strawberries, sweetcorn, courgette's)
• Weeding, husbandry and pruning.
• Erecting polytunnels, irrigation systems and fencing.

There are also opportunities to participate in more skilled work if you have the relevant experience and qualifications. This includes tractor driving, forklift driving, supervision and farm shop work. We also work with many specialist farms so if you are interested in a more specific area of agriculture please ask your agent about this. These include bee keeping, poultry farming and dairy.
You will be paid at least the national minimum wage for the work.

IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR BULGARIAN APPLICANTS
There is a company operating in Bulgaria named Concordia Group Ltd. Its head office is at Sofia 1504 No 33 Oborishte Street.

This company is not part of Concordia (YSV) Ltd and is not associated with us in any way. Applicants in Bulgaria should contact one of our approved agents below:

island
office 24, 3rd floor, 7 zahari stoyanov, troyan - 5600
Tel: 00 359 670 60 654
Email miroto@islandbg.com; misland@abv.bg

sofia - youth and student programmes youth and student programmes, j.k. "darvenitza", block n 50, office n 3, 1756, sofia
Tel: 00 359 297 43249; 00 359 2 9744705
Email ukbrigade@abv.bg; damianivanov_dl@hotmail.com

summer job ltd
Email summer_job@dir.bg