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?

This post has been really interesting. I do think that many people think of fruit picking as an idyllic job with plenty of frolicking in the sunshine thrown in when the reality is clearly very different.

As PP have said the on-site accomodation is a way to hold wages down - it is mostly not worth the £248 per month that is deducted, bunk bed in a portacabin for example often with inadequate washing and cooking facilities for the amount of workers on site.

Farmers don't want people who don't want to use the accomodation as then they would have to pay them more.

Obviously not practical for people with commitments like children, or who are very unfit

However, it would be ideal for young adults, e.g. uni students, who have nothing to tie them down and want to earn some money

If they can take a gap year swanning about abroad, then they could manage 2-3 months doing something useful

I think most of us would rather pay more wouldn’t we?

Let’s put it this way, can the people you want to send fruit picking afford to pay a little bit more? Could you pay a little bit more on those wages while paying double rent?

Now what about all the people who are paid just that little bit more in other minimum-wage jobs, like nursery work? Do you perhaps begin to see the problems in a country where work does not pay for the cost of living?

My daughter (who has agricultural experience as she's worked on a farm before) has applied locally, less than 5 miles away,) and been told they're full and to apply again in June.

I suspect to some extent they're cherry picking the experienced overseas candidates above students.

then they could manage 2-3 months doing something useful

Farmers don't want 3 months, though. This work really isn't for students, anymore. And that's before you get into it being less than minimum wage.

@MrsJoshNavidi just because the farmers will HIRE people on furlough doesn't mean their contracts allow it. Did you even read the article or just take the headline as the full fact?

@Lovemusic33 if you're licking the fruit you'll find yourself in the Daily Fail!

Who else saw the piece on BBC Breakfast interviewing the workers who were just flying in?

Each one of them basically said something about how it isn't a choice for them - it's grueling work and they miss their families but there's no way to earn money back in their home land so this is the life they're stuck with.

Does that honestly sound like a situation which would attracted the provision of decent employment conditions and fair pay over the years? No. Of course bloody not.

I love how many people are saying "young fit people" can take this work, when about 10% of "young fit people" are shielding, about another 18% are physically disabled, about 12% are carers (whose duties have been expanded recently to include palliative care), 21% are young mothers, and only 25% are living at home with their parents (of whom we can assume above average are carers because it wouldn't make sense to move out while looking after family).
And that's excluding the 6935 medical students, 15790 nursing students, 2100 midwifery students, 7000 allied health students, whose courses continue through the summer and who are probably on clinical placements right now looking after sick people who can't stay at home.
So we're saying the 36000 people who applied and who might be actually available have to pay the rent on the place they live, get charged for "accommodation" (an arbitrary figure set by the farmers to take money off people), and the farmers will also take tax and national insurance off them... what money is actually left?
And have any of you SEEN how fast these experienced fruit pickers work? It's not just swanning around in the sun drinking lashings of ginger beer and eating British Spirit like it was in the 60s before the mean old EU came and took your jobs.

It’s chicken and egg isn’t it. If we scrapped zero contract hours and upped wages on things like fruit picking then we would collectively have more money to spend on the fruit!

I applied for fruit picking to help us top up our income while dh is furloughed. Apparently all out local farms have had such a good response they've closed applications. To be fair in a couple weeks when the first round of people realize how bloody awful it is hopefully I'll get a look in.

My grandparents farm in the 50s used to have Italians come over for the season, and travellers also used to go around following the various veg growing seasons. Of course seasons used to be much shorter as well.

It’s chicken and egg isn’t it. If we scrapped zero contract hours and upped wages on things like fruit picking then we would collectively have more money to spend on the fruit!

Thats hoping the baseline prices don't go up, despite how people wish it away it really isn't a simple solution of increasing pay and the prices stay the same.

There is a reason why its globalised economy and everyone enjoyes fruit and veg from Kenya

if British people did this work in greater numbers then they might start organising and coordinating and trying to disrupt the business model which makes the giants with the monopolies so profitable.

In order to protect the status quo they prefer to fly in people who are easier to control.

I do think we could say, "If you want 80% of furlough pay you need to do something productive for 80% of your normal hours." Healthy people, some on £2,500 a month, doing nothing in return isn't reasonable.

So how do you enforce that?

My furlough states that I'm not allowed to take any other employment so I have to stay at home.

Also, my son and his friend applied to work these jobs and they were told all positions had been filled. This was 2 weeks ago. My son is desperate for work because he's an apprentice and cannot be furloughed.

The whole thing is annoying and I dislike the rhetoric about the "lazy Brits" how insulting.

Yes it has the feel of the factory owners in the industrial revolution who owned the housing that their employees lived in.

In this case 'lazy' is a euphemism for 'expects a level of remuneration which is consistent with the onerousness of the work'

Some ridiculous posts on here.

If you shop around for the best 'deal' or avoid certain supermarkets bc of the expense and want to save as much of your money as possible, why shouldn't farmers/growers? They aren't charities. They want to keep their costs as low as possible (just like you) and importing Eastern European workers allows them to do just that.

I'm of the opinion that food is way too cheap, there's too much waste and we eat too much of it anyway so it would be no bad thing for prices to go up.

1. Fruit is relatively cheap
2. Much of what is bought is thrown away and ends in land fill
3. Supermarkets push the prices down
4. Consumers often only buy nice looking fruit so much goes to waste costing the growers money.

These are some of the reasons fruit pickers are pushed to work for little money and set back breaking targets.

Because the 9.60 an hour isn’t that much after you’ve paid £55 a week for a shared caravan and having to sign up for 6months. Plus associated costs.

And the pickers websites are saying they are full for now but might release some work in July. No one can plan for that right now.

There is also a national shortage of chefs/linecooks for the same reasons.

We demand cheap meals out and the staff get paid peanuts.

Would you be willing to pay more for your fruit in order to pay pickers a fair wage?
Would you be willing to pay £30/£40 for a regular meal out (think pizza) in order to ensure the staff are on a decent wage?

My dd applied. Was told there was no accommodation left and the job is several hours away.
She applied for another and was told all positions had been filled.

Dare we say that fruit picking is a skilled job? It's not just an hour down at the local pick your own farm meandering through the crops and picking what we want to buy?