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Original poster

Fruit picking Jobs

480 replies

billysboy · 18/04/2020 09:37

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?

OP posts:
ThrowingGoodAfterBad · 20/04/2020 10:20

Tensions between East Europeans and locals that should have been. Too many unscrupulous local landlords making quick bucks out of it all too.

Vynalbob · 20/04/2020 11:56

What Fuchake said!

FromZeroToHero · 20/04/2020 12:37

If it is ONLY because of a crap pay (£400 a week?) then once immigrant workforce dries up - a lot of british will be replacing them (IF farmers increase the wages?)? Lets say they pay £1000 a week for this type of job. Everyone would be happy to do it then wouldn t they? Then once the salaries are 'good enough for brits' who is prepared to pay £15 for 1kg of strawberries????

Diverami · 20/04/2020 13:11

How would the pickers get there?

CatherineOfAragonsPomegranate · 20/04/2020 14:07

The question is how are the immigrants getting there. Being flown in. That's quite an effort. If that can be done then something can be done to accommodate british workers 'getting there'.

TheWordWomanIsTaken · 20/04/2020 14:38

British people won't do the work - it is often cold, dirty, very physical, long hours and poorly paid
I think that this is an ingenuous statement.
British people - whatever that means, often can't do the job at the rate o pay on offer. Yes, we have minimum wage, but eastern european workers are brought in en masse via agencies. They are mostly not employed directly by the farmer (otherwise MW would apply). They are employed by the agency (based in another country) used to supply them (gosh that makes them sound like commodities doesn't it) and as they are based in a different country, will pay them the rate of that country.
Blame all of us - we want cheap food.
And blame our government for allowing this and all zero hour contract positions to exist when there is clearly a need in some businesses to have year round employees with zero hour contracts available in peak times. Looking at Amazon.

Devlesko · 20/04/2020 15:05

Just because they are sending flights to collect immigrants doesn't mean they'll come.
We are the worst hit in Europe for coronavirus, add this to the racial abuse they got in previous years, all of a sudden we aren't such a good prospect for immigrants.
It will be the kids again, no reason they can't go now they aren't in school.
Maybe that won't work due to our ridiculous safe guarding rules though, we are a shower of shite country, and others must be laughing their heads off about us. Couldn't manage a piss up in a brewery this government.

DrMaryMalone · 20/04/2020 15:32

It’s likely that the contracts for these workers arriving on charter flights were signed before Cv19 kicked off and they would have been coming under their own steam normally anyway. But with some countries closing their borders and stopping commercial airlines from operating l, the employers and agencies have chartered flights specifically for them as those have been allowed to fly.

FromZeroToHero · 20/04/2020 16:37

@TheWordWomanIsTaken why do you think anyone would come here if they were being paid their home country wages LOL

Farm workers earn anywhere between £350 - £500 a week as standard. That is about the same as NMW in the UK. But it is obviously too low for the locals. Better to stay unemployed and drain the benefits system isnt it? That will stop next year, thank God. Either locals will go and do the job or the rest of us will pay extortionate prices for fresh fruit&veg

HeIenaDove · 20/04/2020 16:44

FromZero rules around social tenancies would have to change so SH tenants could do this without risking losing their tenancies because of living away from home

But that would mean giving SH tenants more rights and id bet a penny to a pinch of shit that the same posters who expect them to do this, dont want that.

Hugt · 20/04/2020 16:46

Ive seen posts that despite getting local applicants our local farm cant employ people who cant commit to the whole season. So understandably cant say yes those on furlough who can only say yes for 3 weeks

TheWordWomanIsTaken · 20/04/2020 17:25

Swedish Derogation FromZerotoHero
I don't think it, it happens.

DjMomo · 20/04/2020 17:32

I did this as a teenager along with many other mates and it was a great way to earn your own cash during the summer months. It was a while ago though and I am afraid today’s youth would not be up for it.

HeIenaDove · 20/04/2020 17:35

I was working in a nursing home when i was 17 But i would have done this ten too.

FromZeroToHero · 20/04/2020 17:45

@TheWordWomanIsTaken if they would be paid their home country wages then they would stay home and pick their own fruit there! You are talking absolute rubbish without any knowlegde whatsoever. Disguisting.

EdwinaMay · 20/04/2020 18:06

It's not just the UK, fruit pickers in the US are from South America. I imagine immigrants pick the grapes in France.

Beansandcoffee · 20/04/2020 18:41

I think it’s time to stop saying that the British don’t want these jobs or that the youngsters are not tough enough to do it. It’s not acceptable. Farmers don’t want the British picking their fruit. Many reasons why not. Also most farms are not located next to bus stops, train stations or towns. They also don’t offer school hours, term time working etc etc. Wages are lower because they don’t have to pay £700 a month rent for a pokey room in a house in the south east. It’s also racist to say the British are lazy.

EdwinaMay · 20/04/2020 18:54

I'm pretty sure Poles or others from Eastern Europe wouldn't do these jobs if there were other options. And if the exchange rate wasn't so good.

TheWordWomanIsTaken · 20/04/2020 19:51

Ok, I've told you the loophole under which this happens and you tell me I'm disgusting??!!
Are you an employer exploiting people from overseas??

FromZeroToHero · 20/04/2020 20:32

No I am the employee from overseas and know about the wage differences we are talking about from first hand experience

Uygop · 20/04/2020 20:37

They may be paid £350 a week, but that will be for very long hours, and for very fast picking.

TheWordWomanIsTaken · 20/04/2020 20:49

Well perhaps you are lucky then.
But it is a known loophole (which to be fair, there is a possibility it will be closed soon) where this does happen. Google is your friend. But I read a newspaper article on it a couple of years ago.
Because it has not happened to you does not mean it does not happen.
And unscrupulous employers (the sort that say Brits are lazy blah blah blah) use it.

Devlesko · 20/04/2020 21:37

It is widespread, this is why the racists had a field day and voted leave.
I'm in the NW and got sick of the comments about Eastern Europeans, "they're taking our jobs", "they just claim benefits" They have kids so they can stay here" Wtf would want to stay here when the climate is so much better in other countries.
The money they earn is much more to my Romanian cousin than it is to us. The living conditions are what they are used to as well.
British aren't lazy, but it's merely a case of difference in culture.
My dsis works in warehousing, she is the only non Romanian Female on her shift, I'll name, ao.com. She had to show the women how to use the toilets, they smeared shit up the walls, and the work ethic is no different to ours. i.e will have a bit of a skive too, if they can get away with it, the same as the British workers. Some stay, some go. There is good and bad in all cultures.
My cousins in Transilvania have promised to come over before Brexit and Corona, I haven't seen them in years. One really looks like Dracula, not sure I want to see him again Grin
Anyway, it's like comparing apples and pears, completely useless.

Chillicheese123 · 20/04/2020 22:31

@devlesko I had a trip to Cluj Napoca booked before corona madness ! I was hoping for some Dracula action lol. Maybe one day in the future !

Overthinker1988 · 21/04/2020 08:34

This thread kinda demonstrates why farmers don't want locals...
"the farms are in the middle of nowhere"
"they don't want people part time"
"they don't offer flexible working"
"the shifts are 12 hours"
"they want people for the whole season and my life will be on hold"
"I'm not living on site because I've already got a house/kids/a cat"
Some of these are valid points but still, the work needs done in a certain way, in a certain time frame or the produce rots, they can't faff about tailoring everyone's shifts to their individual circumstances.

P.S I'm Eastern European and we have kids and homes and lives too. Loads of pickers leave their children with a relative and don't see them all summer while working on the farms, there's no choice if you don't have another job as lots of countries don't have a good benefits system.
Not suggesting this is what people should do but just something to think about next time someone complains about foreigners taking all the jobs. If you want that job then them's the breaks, as the kids say.
Yes these jobs used to be done by Brits in the past and conditions were different, but times were different then, no huge supermarkets or competition from lots of cheap imports, so farming didn't need to be as intensive or done as cheaply as it is now.