Dairyman John Adams has been voted farm worker of the year at a national awards ceremony. Mr Adams, 63, who works more than 12 hours a day at Iron Pear Tree Farm, in Rowde, won the title in the Farmer’s Weekly 2010 awards at a ceremony at the Grosvenor Hotel, London, on Thursday.

Mr Adams has worked on farms all his life and has spent the last 25 years at Iron Pear Tree Farm where he looks after 200 Holstein cows. His gruelling day begins at midnight when he gets up to milk and feed the dairy cows and then muck out. He returns home at about 9am for an hour’s sleep and is back at the farm at midday for another four hours of milking and mucking out.

On most other dairy farms the work is divided up but Mr Adams is content doing it all, although in the afternoon he is helped by a colleague. He works seven days a week and has every third weekend off plus the Friday and Monday. Mr Adams said: “It’s quite pleasant when you go out in the morning. It’s lovely watching hares running in the fields and barn owls hunting for mice.”

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Click on the shortlist settings bar and filtering options will become available.

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We briefly touched on this in May and the Equality Act has now become law from 1st October 2010, replacing nine existing laws with a single Act of Parliament. The aim of the new Act is to make it easier for staff to understand their rights and employers to understand their obligations.

Covering issues from gender pay gaps to pre-employment health screening, the Act is far ranging and it is your obligation to ensure you comply.

Two points to consider as an employer:

• With a few exceptions it is now illegal for employers to question candidates about health before they have been offered a job.
• If a co-worker is doing the same job as another member of staff but being paid more, they can ask for a pay rise and discuss their pay even if there is a pay non-disclosure clause in their contracts to ascertain if their is any discrimination.

For more information visit www.equalities.gov.uk

(please do seek legal advice to confirm any of the issues here)