Fruit picking Jobs

[billysboy]

With so many Fruit Picking Jobs available aibu to think that a few of the people already in this country would want to take them up

It feels as if we are paying 1m to stay at home rather than take up this work
Its hard work no doubt but also pays £10-15 an hour is it beneath too many people?

No thank you. Currently on Jobseeker’s Allowance but I won’t br fruit picking.

@ThePrettyOneX

Just think on your comment:

".... but I think this whole example proves that british are generally lazy and not as hard working as foreigners.."

Totally unacceptable comment and xenophobic - imagine what the response would be if you subbed "British" for "Polish", "women" or "BAME" for example but it's okay to say this about an entire country "generally"

@ThePrettyOneX

Your posts are xenophobic and racist.

Many British students worked fruit picking in Australia when my DC were young, you saved enough to travel before heading home.

but I think this whole example proves that british are generally lazy and not as hard working as foreigners, hence are not desirable for some employers.

How bloody rude!

FWIW I used to do a job where sometimes I'd start at 7am and finish at midnight 6 days in a row. Outside in rain. In sun. during freezing weather. Other times I'd work less hours or overnight all for barely minimum wage.

Don't fucking tell me Brits are lazy. I know from experience that they aren't. On those shifts it was routine to see British pensioners - your tough old granny and grand dad, working alongside you for the same amount of time, cleaning houses, packing crates.

Many single parents or just people who want to earn as much as possible doing back to back shifts. Working security or cleaning at night then without even sleeping, literally changing clothes and coming to work for another 8 or 9 hours, going back home for a 4 hour sleep and then back to their security/cleaning job.

I know people who do 3 jobs or 4.

I've never done this on MN before, but do very fuck off!

This is a perfect example of brexit Britain

I thought no one could do these jobs because of “all the foreigners) and now we’ve got millions unable to work and we having to FLY people into the country to do it

We are doomed

Keep getting told to stay at home, it’s not hard etc. been furloughed so in being ‘paid to stay at home’.
Then you get told you’re lazy for not taking a fruit picking job. It would involve me driving miles every day on the motorway, buying more food because I’m more active, and potentially bring the virus to elderly MIL who lives in our granny flat and who we are trying to protect as much as possible.
I don’t see how that would help the country more than me just staying home

**No thank you. Currently on Jobseeker’s Allowance but I won’t br fruit picking.

Good for you! You forgot to add "proud to be british"

Don't fucking tell me Brits are lazy

Al ot are though, just like in every other country there is a mixture. You cant say everyone is a hard physical grafter, because funny enough there are loads of manual jobs around here, and they remain on job sites for months. It doesn't detract from those that do work hard, but it's ridiculous to paint everyone like that, because it's not true.

@Thisisitisit It was a PP making sweeping generalisation about British workers:

".... but I think this whole example proves that british are generally lazy and not as hard working as foreigners.."

Brits are definitely on a lazier side of a scale here if we are comparing brits and foreigners

ThePrettyOneX - why so rude? I have underlying health issues and no wish to live in a caravan with strangers.

Sounds like working conditions from another century though. We are me at to be a progressive nation

From someone used to working in an office, I wouldn’t be physically fit enough. With IBS I also need access to a loo easily!

Only fools and horses work

Sounds like working conditions from another century though. We are me at to be a progressive nation

What do you mean? Is it the wage that you object to, or the entire business of harvesting crops by hand?

The gangmasters are the ones making the money, for them the people who do the actual work are mere pieces of machinery to be managed

Take a close look at the gig economy. On the one hand the positive is that it's flexible work so great for students etc.

On the other hand, people are working in poor conditions or way above legal amount of hours for a pittance. Many Brits work these jobs full time or alongside their main or several other jobs. This is just to be able to have some money in their pockets after bills rent and utilities.

Most importantly, one job does not pay them enough to live.

In these jobs many Brits work alongside foreigners and Eastern Europeans, so this 'Brits are lazy' rhetoric, when actually at the bottom of the working ladder one is often thrown together with everyone else does not stand up.

Then Brits who choose not to kill themselves working for crap pay are 'lazy' this propaganda works for big business.

Take a look at the construction industry. It is harder for workers to get decent pay, especially doing HA or Council contract work. They have been undermined by the bosses, companies and the govt who will happily pay less to foreign workers, than pay their fellow Brits for doing the same skilled work.

The working class Brit is royally shafted on all sides, then has to put up with this 'brits are workshy' crap from their right wing 'betters' above and their left wing 'friends' below, who are so eager to appear inclusive, they have made their core audience excluded.

Shat on on all sides. Then they wonder why Brexit happened.

No the wage is fair enough but not the fact that you are compelled to live in the inadequate accommodation and the gang master situation

Apparently the benefit of Romanian fruit pickers is experience. They have to work to a certain amount per day otherwise they are dismissed. They also live on site

As a student I picked for English farmers under exactly those same conditions. It's damn hard work under constant pressure from the farmers and the accommodation was camp beds in a barn , BYO sleeping bag.Back then almost all pickers were British ; many of them were (then called) gypsies and they were the fastest pickers and highest earners. The gypsies lived in their own vans and benders.

A link below to a site recruiting for soft fruit farms in Scotland. If you click on a specific farm some if them give details on accommodation, working condition and pay with some also having photos. It might help to give an idea of what the job and living on farm entails. Note also that the majority pay staff directly, not through a gang master.

jobs.angusgrowers.co.uk/farms/

I'm in Scotland and have just checked an advert for a fruit picking job here. It pays minimum wage. It says don't bother applying if you're not an experienced picker. No accommodation. And apparently you have to hurry because the jobs are going fast.

I enquired last year too. Minimum wage and the nearest place is a half hour drive. The farmer said he preferred East Europeans because they're faster. The Scottish people who did it once weren't worth the minimum wage.

Of course not many people want to do back breaking physical labour for minimum wage when there are much easier ways to earn minimum wage. I don't understand why supply and demand doesn't kick in to drive up wages to an amount that people are willing to work for (I guess due to people from abroad that are willing to do the work for that money). Yes we would have to pay more for British fruit and veg.

In other sectors surely the going rate for the job is influenced by what it costs to get people able and willing to do the work?