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?

[Justmuddlingalong]

The nearest farm to me looking for pickers, wants people with experience, preferably from Eastern European countries.
Pickers must stay on site.
Accommodation will be provided, and rent charged.

[Trinpy]

I don't think we should force anyone to take on this kind of work but I do think we should accept how reliant we are on foreign workers. We can't have it both ways.

My DH is currently furloughed and considered fruit picking. However as an EU citizen resident in the UK he is still bitter over 'Brexit means Brexit' and has decided we can pick our own fruit . I am still working fulltime anyway so I need him at home to look after the dcs.

[Mypathtriedtokillme]

Picking fruit is hard physical work, in the weather and often poorly paid.
It’s also looked down on (as is most manual labour)

I do find it odd for a country who spend years getting out if the EU (sold on the fear of foreigners taking jobs) imports those same foreigners.
Likely because they can pay them poorly with poor conditions.

[EmmapausalBitch]

I have filled out 3 or 4 nationwide applications and heard nothing. I have also contacted 3 local farms and have heard nothing or been told that all vacancies have been filled.

It could be a lack of jobs in my area, it could be that I don't want to travel and/or live onsite, or it could be my age (50).

[EL8888]

In answer to your question yes. Unfortunately a lot of people in this country don’t want to work and also think that kind of work is “beneath them”. So yeah l can see why the farmers want foreign labour

[FredaFrogspawn]

We did it piecemeal as children - you might be given half a run of potatoes so you were sharing an adult’s job with another child. We got £8 a day instead of £16 as the adults got but it was still a crazy amount of money in the 70s.

Raspberries and strawberries were weighed and you were paid per punnet in dry weather and per bucket in wet (those berries were sold for jam).

But I don’t think they could do it that way anymore really - they are used to skilled picking gangs run by professional gangmasters.

[Snorkelface]

I really want to do this but as others have said it's the living on site that's the problem. I understand why, a lot of the picking starts at 5am due to temperature, so would be impossible to get there. Also my closest one (which I was seriously considering and paid well too) is 5am starts and 6 days a week picking, 5 days a week might have been doable but not 6. Other half is in a rural area and so I was hoping I could work something out with that but there's no jobs anywhere near where he is. I used to do it years ago and it's hard work and you have to be fast (which is why they'll take experienced workers every time) but I loved it.

[isabellerossignol]

I saw someone on our local Facebook page saying it's a disgrace that immigrants are being brought in to do this work. Better for the fruit to rot on the farms apparently Although they couldn't explain why they thought it was better to be left to rot.

[EricaNernie]

Both my dd's actually came home in the pandemic with the idea of doing fruit picking.
of course it isnt beneath them.
but living away from home, paying rent for some accommodation , whole different ball game.

[EveryDayIsADuvetDay]

I WFM part time, but would happily do fruit picking part time - but not living on site.

[Sendmoneynow]

My 16 year old applied, didn't even get a reply.

[Snorkelface]

Not all of them are charging for the accommodation at the moment because of the current situation.

[TheMandalorian]

If you want cheap fruit and veg from the supermarket the farmers need to employ the cheapest and most hardworking labour.
Most British dont want to work for less than minimum wage for long hours and live on site.
Apparently loads of brits have applied but been rejected by the farmers as not hardworking or cheap enough.
I did a lot of this type of work when I was a student back in the 90s but my home town in east Anglia is now a completely different place full of eastern Europeans.
I dont blame the foreign workers I blame the farmers. But my attitude is in the minority from people back home. Who have seen job options gradually limited by unscrupulous agricultural employers.

[KenDodd]

Yanbu op.

Perfect opportunity for all those Brexiteers to get the jobs they always wanted but couldn't get because immigrants stole them.

[MigginsMs]

What a sneery thread. What are we supposed to do..March people to their nearest field with a gun to their heads?

I agree. Fuck off OP. As if it’s not bad enough that people have been forced out of work through no fault of their own you want to force them to do work they may be entirely unsuited for, or not be able to do for health or childcare reasons. I bet you’d love to see the return of chain gangs and also think benefit claimants should work for their money.

[AngeloMysterioso]

Anyone who's been laid off can pick fruit, right? It's not that simple

[Janicejaniceahmfallin]

All the farms round here have been inundated with UK applications, including from local volunteers who don’t require accommodation and want to support the farmers. We’ve been told there may be more vacancies in a couple of months.

[chomalungma]

If companies can't get fruit pickers because of the conditions - early start. long days then surely the companies can change the conditions.

Flexible working, shorter days for some etc

Better to get some fruit picked than none at all

[Peapod29]

KenDodd . It’s actually very skilled work. There wouldn’t be enough Brits with the right skills for the job.

[EdwinaMay]

They are getting lots of volunteers. Llisten to Farming Today at 5.45, but there are still problems as they need a proportion of experienced people to drive tractors, run machinery too.

[EricaNernie]

dont blame the farmers, blame the supermarkets, or the Markets,
farms are often intensive, under polytunnels, using machines to help with the picking, you lie on the machines and pick

[AintOverUntilTheCatLadySings]

If I got made unemployed I wouldn't apply for a fruit picking job. Often you have to live on site, are paid under minimum wage because bed and board is included and you're stationed somewhere really remote away from friends and family.

It's not as easy as shipping the poor and unemployed to the farms and getting them to work.

[AhComeOnNow]

Does anyone know what will happen when we leave the EU fully? Will they still be able to bring these people over on temporary work visas easily?

[TheTurnOfTheScrew]

I've done fruit picking as a student. It's physically very hard work. Also, the thing about large farms is that annoyingly they do tend to be in the countryside, away from where most people live. You need a car to travel to most, if not living on site, and people looking for casual work in this wage bracket usually can't afford one. My friend's DH looked into doing it as he's a self-employed joiner and not working currently, but the cost of buying/hiring a second car (she's NHS) and fuel would have wiped out net earnings.

[MollyButton]

My daughter applied. However the application process was so negative that it put her off - it strongly emphasises how repetitive, dull and needing high accuracy it is.
Lots of people applied, but have dropped out during the application process.