SETTING the minimum wage too high could cost jobs in the horticultural industry, a guest workers’ agent has warned.

Rodney Brouard, managing director of Stan Brouard Ltd, has been bringing foreign workers into Guernsey for more than 20 years and securing them jobs within the horticultural and agricultural industries.

He said the sector had shrunk by about two-thirds since he started and he feared more companies would go out of business if Commerce and Employment set the rate too high.

The department has this week gone out to public consultation to help it decide what the minimum wage should be.

Mr Brouard (pictured) said workers he brought over, all from Madeira or Latvia, were paid a little more than £4 per hour as a basic wage.

However, they also received set bonuses, free transport to and from work, accommodation for £50 a week that included all bills, and overtime at time-and-a-quarter.

‘If it is pitched too high, it will just put more horticultural companies out of business,’ he said.

‘In the end these people will not have jobs. Both Madeira and Latvia are really struggling so these people have come over here to make money, do lots of overtime and send the money back home.’