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?

[Doubletrouble99]

I think that if farmers are ignoring training up Brits. to do these jobs they are cutting off their noses to spite their faces. Next year we will be completely out of the EU and their ability to fly in Romanians could be completely changed.
I've lived in the Fens and in Perthshire, both places are high veg/fruit producers. Much of the veg. now is cut and placed onto a conveyor belt into a machine where someone else sits and trims the item whilst it is driven along the rows in the fields. So I can't see how they are all paid by how much they individually pick. Lots of production doesn't work like that any more. In high volumes production the likes of strawberries are grown at waist level in poly tunnels to prolong the season so no bending down at all.

[MsMD]

I cant work out if every one of these dull af fruit picking threads is started by the same person name changing because they all have that same air of superiority and smugness while she and HER children COULDN'T POSSIBLY do it because xyz 🙄

[MrsJoshNavidi]

It's bonkers. My DD happily did a fruit picking stint in Australia - one of the conditions for extending a visa -but wouldn't dream of doing it here, even though the pay is not bad.

[TheMagiciansMewTwo]

@Meandmypoodle yy I think you're right. I worked as a picker when I was a student so I know what it entails.
From what posters are saying here about local people applying and not hearing back, it seems the reality isn't that Brits don't want to do the work but that some English farms/producers don't want to rely on them hence flying in Romanian staff. It could be that the 'no-one local wants to do it narrative' is just PR to stop people questioning why we're encouraging people to come into the UK when most other countries have closed their borders.

[quietheart]

@Rosehip10
Many farms boast they employ a "welfare officer" - generally a native speaker of the language of the main part of the workforce - the "welfare" they do is the bollocking/dismisals when target production rates are not met. Workers are constantly reminded that there are people waiting to take a job if you don't shape up

Exactly, aka gang master

Why would anyone want their relatives to go off and work in those conditions and why should any one who is unemployed be forced to work in those conditions?

[Beebers111]

Dh applied (almost 50) so did 18 and 17 year old ds’s. No vacancies.

[mumwon]

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/17/laid-off-pick-fruit-seasonal-workers-special-skills
this is written by someone who did picking for 5 years & I suggest op & others who think its a simple option should read it
Its easy for people who have no experience of farm work to make massive assumptions & we need to have access to a fully productive local food resource especially in the time of pandemic & Brexit & it is a bitter comeback of saying what most of us have never wished
" I told you this could happen"

[C8H10N4O2]

its exceedingly hard work very long hours and shit money. £3K if you Romanian (and you're a very fast picker ) for 5 months work 7 days a week may see good but most UK people want considerably more that that

Not just want, if they are having to maintain rent in the regular place they can't earn enough to maintain their home whilst paying mandatory over priced accommodation on farms. And as PP say - if they haven't done the job before they won't earn enough to pay their way.

[TheLadyAnneNeville]

Hilarious to every have thought UK out of workers (even BEFORE Covid 19) would want to live in caravans and be in a field at 4.30am to start picking fruit and veg.

Sorry, but we’re in for a bloody huge shock after this and forthcoming Brexit.

[PubsClubsMinistryOfSound]

It's planned that there will be visas available specifically for seasonal agricultural workers once we've left the Withdrawal Agreement. Not even the Tories are that stupid.

[YangShanPo]

This is a different time and the government has been able to sort out all sorts of things in a very short time and pay out money where needed. Everything doesn't need to be done exactly how it has been. People can be given reasonable hours and conditions and supermarkets can sell things that are a bit less perfect than usual and at a fair price set centrally rather than trying to undercut each other and make the best profits. People will buy it if there's no alternative, especially if they are paying out less on restaurant food.

[WanderingMilly]

I fancied doing this. I am older but would happily be outside all day picking raspberries or cutting leeks or whatever. However, looking into it, I need to be younger, have previous experience and live in a caravan onsite in a place which is far from home (despite my already living in a rural, farming area). It's the onsite which is impossible unless you're young and a migrant worker....may have something to do with applications....

[PinaColadaintheRain]

I saw a tv interview with the farmers and they just didn’t try to employ UK people in my view - they were saying that they needed ‘skilled labour’ that they couldn’t train up in time.

I do call BS on the British farmers here. I think they are just being lazy and it was easier to ship them in. Plenty of bored older teenagers who would love some money and they don’t have to live on site. I did loads of fruit picking and it all got done without us being on site - like transport workers and other key workers they don’t have to live in Tesco to work there!

Just plain lazy and also probably have a good financial deal.

[PinaColadaintheRain]

@WanderingMilly honestly you don’t need previous experience to pick fruit! Utter tosh.

Honestly there are midwives working on critical care wards, lots of people skilling up in different areas. The farmers are just covering themselves here. You do not need experience to pick strawberrries! Or any other fruit!

[QualityFeet]

Yeah having done it and been pretty much the only local person left I can see why they won’t recruit from within the uk. It’s tough work and the majority of uk nationals struggle with the rigour and discomfort. My window cleaner has worked his way through loads of trainees, they are keen, they like him, they just can’t cope with the relentless pace of the job and do it in most weathers. His friends who sometimes work with him are all tough northern blokes, single with ferrets. A dying breed perhaps!

[bogoffmda]

Hedgehog - 12hr back breaking shifts and travel. OMG = how barbaric and in human.

Really, the majority of frontline healthcare workers - think nurses physios, doctors etc are on 12 hr back breaking shifts with travel and the added bonus of a small fecking virus that could kill them thrown in.

So tell me what is the difference.

[QualityFeet]

The recruiters want previous experience or they know your image of what picking is and what it actually is will almost certainly lead to you quitting

[bananaskinsnomnom]

I think we are in for a shock. One of the parts of Brexit that no one took into account.

Funnily enough i’m also in the group who looked into fruit picking - I’m fit and healthy and have no children and am furloughed, so could. Only one fruit picking farm near me though it turns out. It’s still 4 miles away, I can’t drive, could cycle. I emailed just to see, stated I had no experience whatsoever but was aware of the problem and able to learn. But they were very clear on their website, and the replying email, they wanted people for 5 or 6 days a week, no part time. You had to live (and pay) for their accommodation (automatically taken from your pay) as the starting time each day varies based on many factors so they need you there. I’m not going to pay rent for a caravan share when I have my own home! Also kind of ruins the social distancing issue....

Also was the issue that, while it was temporary work, they needed people for the whole season. They needed people to commit from now (well they’ve already started) until October / November. That won’t work, I’m furloughed but from a school and have been told I could be “unfurloughed” at any time, either due to schools going back or to join the team looking after key worker children. Obviously therefore I cannot commit, so it won’t work for me. They were a very friendly farm, and I think like many I was naive to the true conditions of the employment.

And I think this is exactly why so many British people don’t do it! First off, it’s seasonal. Too log a season for it to be a normal student job, but too short and low pay to be able to work yourself to the max and enjoy the proceeds for the remainder of the year.
Having to live on sight basically excludes anyone with a family. The irregular hours 6 days a week means your whole life is on hold - it’s not like shift work where you get your schedule a month in advance, it’s largely dependent on the weather!

It’s a tough one, I don’t blame the farmers, there are plenty more jobs for the minimum wage which are nowhere near as back breaking as life consuming.

[Janaih]

I worked on a lettuce farm when I was 18, along with some illegal immigrant workers and people staying in a bail hostel who had just got out of prison. It was the worst job I've ever had, appalling conditions, treatment and pay, and the illegal workers were treated much much worse. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
I am an expert at cutting lettuce though.

[PinaColadaintheRain]

@QualityFeet I think what makes me cross is honestly the farmers have not tried. Of course it’s horrible work. But so is cleaning and bus driving and being a doctor or nurse.

It was just simpler to get a plane load in.

I would pick fruit at the moment and so would my teenager. It’s only for a few weeks. They probably just don’t want the hassle of having to recruit from the Uk but it’s about time they did at the moment. No exceptions.

[Justmuddlingalong]

If the alternative is fruit and veg not being picked, then surely anyone who can help is better than nothing. It should be all hands to the pump right now.

[Noconceptofnormal]

This is probably not the best place to ask this question as most people on here have childcare responsibilities and are middle aged so not practical.

But do we have enough young people under 30 who are unemployed and could do this work, yes, especially as other minimum wage jobs are not available right now, like a lot of retail or service industry jobs.

I suspect it is logistics why this hasn't happened and there's always a political point to be made (ie we need immigrants etc).

[BelfryBat]

I live in central London. It would take me at least an hour to get to one. My back would give out within an hour. Show me a job at £10 an hour that I can walk to (say within 2 miles) and that won't risk me catching COVID-19, and I'll jump at it.

[Ragwort]

We can see fruit farms from our window ... my 19 year old DS is home from Uni, he is strong & fit ... he has applied to three farms, one replied saying get in touch in May and the other two didn’t respond at all ... very disappointing.

[PinaColadaintheRain]

But they were very clear on their website, and the replying email, they wanted people for 5 or 6 days a week, no part time. You had to live (and pay) for their accommodation (automatically taken from your pay) as the starting time each day varies based on many factors so they need you there. I’m not going to pay rent for a caravan share when I have my own home! I agree this is the problem and it is one created by the farmers. No one has to live on site for a job like this! I worked on farms when there were no people living on site, and I just worked set hours, some worked earlier and later.