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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Fruit picking? Are they f***ing serious?

677 replies

emmcan · 26/04/2020 20:31

So whichever hapless muppet got dragged out today to do the daily lying to the gullible has suggested that furloughed workers could br picking fruit.

Fuck me, how fucking badly run is this shitshow?

The reason that we have had a two decades of migrant workers doing these jobs is because British people are too lazy and incompetent to do them.

And now they expect furloughed workers to head out into the fields and get their hands dirty?

It will happen, in a fashion, as they will just stop paying money to people who refuse to work, but it will be an appalling form of slave labour.

OP posts:
slipperywhensparticus · 27/04/2020 07:57

Volunteering in a care home? Why should I take someone's job? And fyi they dont want every tom dick and harry running through their doors right now something called a lock down is happening and they wish to protect their residents

Waxonwaxoff0 · 27/04/2020 07:57

I can't take on any volunteering roles because I have a dependant child who is too young to be left alone. That's it. Pretty simple really.

floatygoat · 27/04/2020 07:57

@jackdawdawn exactly.

MigginsMs · 27/04/2020 07:57

Also is it not a bit insulting to care home staff to think any old Tom, Dick and Harry can just waltz i. off the street and start doing the job?

And no I don’t think furloughed workers should have to “help” more than anyone else. They have have jobs that they are ready, willing and able to do but have been prevented from doing so by the government (or their employer acting in accordance with government advice). Why the fuck is it their duty to give their time and labour for free to help? Plus we are all meant to be staying home.

Non furloughed people can also “help” btw there’s nothing to stop you.

1forsorrow · 27/04/2020 07:58

There are people volunteering in care homes and even hospitals.

Peppafrig · 27/04/2020 07:59

@1forsorrow again you seem to be unaware of how the world works . You can't work in kitchens without health and safety certificates . To suggest that schools should be open for any random to work there that is on furlough is laughable. Plus you still wouldn't be allowed to work in the laundry of a care home without all the background checks either.

1forsorrow · 27/04/2020 07:59

Why the fuck is it their duty to give their time and labour for free to help? It isn't for free, they are getting up to £2,500 per month.

TillyFloss10 · 27/04/2020 08:00

If I was a farmer I would be pisssd off that I was being made to have people on my farm with no experience and no desire to do the work. During these hard times food pickers need to be fast and efficient, which most furloughed workers will not be, nor due to.laziness but due to lack of experience in a similar role.

Also as a person who works in a school, the suggestion that all furloughed workers with children can send them to school so they can go out and do this essential work worries me. That is potentially thousands more children attending school, meaning more staff have to attend and making social distancing in a school environment much more difficult.

And please do no suggest that furloughed workers go and work in a care home. This is work that needs to be done by people with the right qualifications and right desire to do this job. You have to be special type of person to do that job well and it is insulting to these people to suggest that anyone can walk in off tha street and do it as well as they do.

1forsorrow · 27/04/2020 08:01

Plus you still wouldn't be allowed to work in the laundry of a care home without all the background checks either. Yes you would, you just couldn't be left unsupervised until you got your DBS. Maybe you don't know as much as you think you do.

Strange about the schools thing, speaking as someone who volunteers in a school.

1forsorrow · 27/04/2020 08:03

So many working so hard on their excuses. Like I said if people getting paid to do nothing really don't want to give even 1 hour of their time to help then just say so.

MigginsMs · 27/04/2020 08:03

Bit harder if you have a fulltime job though isn't it?

Not really , care homes are open 24 hours a day 7 days a week. HTH.

Mind you at the moment care homes aren’t even allowing visitors, they’re hardly going to welcome random people into the home just now.

My husband is furloughed and while he would take on additional tasks I actually prefer him not to when he has the option to reduce the risk of bringing the virus home. If people have to go out fair enough that’s different but otherwise I don’t see why people should increase their exposure to the virus just to “help”.

Hairyfairy01 · 27/04/2020 08:03

Wax schools are open for longer hours, including school holidays for keyworkers at the moment. I expect everybody to be compassionate about everyone's work, they are all difficult in different ways. You seem to lack understanding of how little training is provided to most care workers. However I'm sure even without any training people can make beds, clean, wash pots, entertain, deliver food and prescriptions etc.

Squashpocket · 27/04/2020 08:04

I've done fruit picking and depending on what you're picking it can be really, really, really hard work.

Some of the jobs are so physically demanding they don't bother hiring women for them at all (no sex equality).

You would have to live communally on the farm or in a hostel nearby - unless you live within a few miles of a fruit farm you are not going to be able to drop and pick up your kids from school. Say goodbye to your family for the season.

If you have any physical limitations at all - slightly bad back? Limited upper body strength? You will be fucked.

You are likely to be paid on the basis of how much you pick and the quality of your picking - you will be slow and do a shit job to begin with so will be paid fuck all.

Like a lot of physical jobs it will not be possible for everyone, or even more than a small minority to do it. Maybe furloughed armed forces, young fit students and people used to outdoor physical labour would be best suited.

Helmetbymidnight · 27/04/2020 08:04

yes exactly, brexit beings so many benefits after all so a little forced labour is just a tiny thing.

1forsorrow · 27/04/2020 08:05

My husband is furloughed and while he would take on additional tasks I actually prefer him not to when he has the option to reduce the risk of bringing the virus home. If people have to go out fair enough that’s different but otherwise I don’t see why people should increase their exposure to the virus just to “help”. But you don't mind him taking the money?

MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously · 27/04/2020 08:06

Furloughed workers are entitled to help, since they've paid into the system via taxation. They aren't getting free money - they are getting support from the system that they have helped to finance.
And long term furloughing wouldn't be necessary if the government had got off its arse and bought PPE and not been pressured by gambling companies a
into not cancelling Cheltenham etc. If they had done this, lockdown would have been more effective and our death figures would have reduced more quickly and furloughing would be over sooner.

Al1Langdownthecleghole · 27/04/2020 08:07

I agree the furlough scheme should be looked at. I’m in the fortunate position that, I’m being paid my full salary, but like PP have said, I’m contractually unable to apply for other work.

The other issue is that my furlough is in a three week block, with my employer waiting to hear from the government about next steps. This makes Applying for voluntary work difficult as I don’t know how long I would be available for.

A further point. I have worked for thirty plus years, have never been unemployed and in normal times have two volunteering roles as well as raising a family, and until recentLy caring for an elderly, now deceased, parent. But crack on with calling me lazy why don’t you.

Helmetbymidnight · 27/04/2020 08:08

i am enjoying reading 1forsorrows attempt to shame people.

1forsorrow · 27/04/2020 08:09

And long term furloughing wouldn't be necessary if the government had got off its arse and bought PPE and not been pressured by gambling companies a into not cancelling Cheltenham etc. If they had done this, lockdown would have been more effective and our death figures would have reduced more quickly and furloughing would be over sooner.

Couldn't agree more with that but unfortunately we are where we are, there is a thread on here about neighbours moaning about an elderly womans grass needing cutting, I think she's in her 90s. I wonder how many of the moaners are sat at home doing nothing, taking the financial help but wouldn't even go and cut someone's grass for them.

Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow · 27/04/2020 08:10

I find your original post disgusting. British workers are not lazy or incompetent. They are not prepared to work for £5.00 and doss on a caravan floor with ten other workers.

And this is why we had Brexit!!!

Waxonwaxoff0 · 27/04/2020 08:11

@Hairyfairy01 right, so as I said before, if loads more people are going to start sending their children to school to do essential work then they may as well reopen the schools. Then I can go back to the job that I'm actually employed to do.

Abbccc · 27/04/2020 08:11

But isn't it better that furloughed workers (who are able ) spend some time picking fruit and veg, (evenif they are slow,) so that we have enough to eat and the harvest doesn't go to waste?

1forsorrow · 27/04/2020 08:12

i am enjoying reading 1forsorrows attempt to shame people. Well if it makes some healthy adult who is doing nothing stop and think, could I go and collect that elderly neighbours shopping, medication, offer to cut their grass then I am happy to do that.

MigginsMs · 27/04/2020 08:12

It isn't for free, they are getting up to £2,500 per month.

Open their workplaces tomorrow then and just let the virus burn through the population and then go back to work. I’m sure a lot of furloughed workers would be happy to just go back and take their chances. Whether the rest of us or the government will be when the virus goes out of control.

Plus a lot are getting nowhere near £2500. A lot of people are receiving 20% less than minimum wage.

Personally I am not furloughed, still working and also out volunteering for a charity I was already involved with on my day off. Charities also need to do due diligence on volunteers they can’t have any old person rocking up.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with furloughed people not wanting to help. Why have they got any more obligation to be community minded than anyone else? They’ve been forced into a situation they didn’t want, it doesn’t mean they have to all of a sudden be turned into selfless pillars of the community.

Mintjulia · 27/04/2020 08:13

@1forsorrow £2500 less tax. So if things go back to normal wages in June, that’ll be 2500 less 40% tax and 12% NI.

So about £1,200 a month. Still more than those on benefits I admit but the govt should get a lot of the £2500 back via PAYE by the end of the financial year.