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

[emmcan]

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.

"Burn through the population ". Are we still kidding ourselves that it's only affecting other people. "Sick people who were going to die anyway. "
Lovely. Ask the PM about that.

@TrainspottingWelsh I completely agree about the non workers by choice.

It just seems very much like, no one was bothered about it being slave labour, unsafe conditions, and all this until they were asked to do it. I dont think it should be forced, nothing should be forced, but I think it should encouraged. Lots of people are complaining their wages aren't enough now, so this is a way to earn more.

I think this would effect the unemployed (on job seekers) who are made to do the fruit picking. In the furlough contract you are still employed and can't do any paid work while on furlough, unless it's volunteering.

It will be a very interesting situation ! I've seen a lot of uni students interested in doing it, to earn money and have something to do in the summer.

I am enjoying reading 1forsorrows attempt to shame people

Well apart from the Rising bile, yeah it’s certainly shedding light on a certain mindset

It's a moot point anyway. The last thing fruit farmers are looking for are middle aged, middle managers, confident, opinionated, used to sedentary working, with no experience or ability in the field whatsoever.

mrshunt exactly. In my work place, cleaning is done my graduate educated Eastern European’s. They do an amazing job for very little money. How does this benefit anyone, except the directors of the cleaning company?

My closed fruit farm that I know of and go to, is 26miles away. Not exactly . a trip down the road. But I think lots of people who enjoy being active will enjoy it. Each to their own.

I think fruit picking is never given a second thought in normal times as people just expect their strawberries and raspberries to be on the shelf in the supermarket and some throw a hissy fit if they're not in stock, perhaps some thought will now be given to how the fruit gets to the shelf and more appreciation shown for those that actually do the hard work

*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.*

^^this.

The people who came here from abroad to pick the fruit and veg are quick workers and have been doing the job for years and often in several countries. They earn more than they do at home or they wouldn’t get on the planes.

During Brexit I was heartily sick of people complaining about them and in some cases their children - taking school places, seeing the dr etc. The farmers are already saying that many workers who signed up haven’t turned up. Don’t forget if we don’t get workers, food inflation will be sky high. At a time of great unemployment and a drop in earnings that the upcoming recession will mean. Be prepared to dig deep financially before too long!

By the way, furloughed workers are not all thick, they really can learn basic care skills pretty quickly. It’s not degree level work! neither is basic child care. Or fruit picking!

@Hairyfairy01 hope a lot of you will be much more compassionate towards people having to do these kind of jobs in future

Wow. How high and mighty are you. Do YOU have compassion for people who do this kind of work? Easy to lecture patronisingly to others from your safe spot I bet.

I don't get the assumption that furlough workers previously looked down on migrant workers or hated them. Since when were we all of the same mind? I never voted Brexit and I never voted to get rid of foreigners. That doesn't mean I was happy for them to be paid peanuts. Somehow we've turned things round so that Brexiteers' hatred of foreigners is somehow now translated as 'compassion' towards them! What a Joke.

Only some EE workers are experienced fruit pickers. A lot are either very vulnerable people or highly educated people whose life circumstances are such that they're desperate. Do not assume they're all super fit or super experienced and therefore use it as an excuse for British furloughed workers.

@siring1 The good news is the migrant workers are gone. You have your jobs back now or lose your furlough money

What a lazy assumption. So all furloughed staff voted for Brexit? I didn't. What a stupid comment.

I voted for Brexit. I don't hate foreigners. Wanting to leave the EU doesn't automatically equal a hatred of people from other places and it's lazy and reductive to keep making those assumptions about why people voted for Brexit.
I do believe the country should only have immigration that benefits us, that the existing system is great for rich business owners who want cheap labour and to keep UK wages low, but isn't great for us as a whole. I don't agree with bringing Eastern Europeans here and exploiting them. Pay them properly and don't take the piss by charging them £££ to live in shitty conditions.

It's a moot point anyway. The last thing fruit farmers are looking for are middle aged, middle managers, confident, opinionated, used to sedentary working, with no experience or ability in the field whatsoever.

Quite. The last time I picked fruit was at 15, over 30 years ago. I was crap at it then despite being fit as a flea and earned just enough to cover lunch and travel. I can't see I'd be any better now.

I'm on furlough and worried about my job at the end of this period. Waiting to hear whether the mortgage company will agree to a payment holiday.

I don't have to justify myself to people who are jealous that I'm apparently receiving 'money for nothing' and have way too much time on their hands.

They do want to come though. They are paid 3-10 times more than they would be at home. They stay for 4-8 months. They are our guest workers and they mostly get the living wage. If we want fruit and veg picked, we need them. I’m pleased to have them. They are not slave workers, they are paid and they are not forced to come here. They could of course go to all the other countries who use them. That includes most of the big economies in the Eu and the USA. Going without these people is hugely difficult. No other country can do without them. Many return year after year to the same farms so they are hardly being treated as slaves.

Only some EE workers are experienced fruit pickers. A lot are either very vulnerable people or highly educated people whose life circumstances are such that they're desperate.
A lot are just people earning money, not necessarily vulnerable or desperate. A good friend spent two summer stints on English farms during our undergrad degree (overseas), and had financed in full her Masters (in the UK) as she fell in love with the country. She is probably on six figures or close now, a niche software developer.
I know some teachers and college / university lecturers from my home country doing these jobs (mainly in other European countries) during the summer breaks. They are not desperate. Not rich, of course, but not desperate either.

BubblesBuddy, you're wrong, I'm afraid. Secondly, there's no justification for paying these people less than a British worker would be paid. There's no justification for forcing them to live on site - which is easily done through paying them less, introducing long shifts etc, effectively they have no choice than to do that. No one should be treated this way. If they were treated properly then the price of fruit and veg would be higher and we'd need to accept that. But the consecutive UK govts and fruit farm owners purposefully chose to use what they considered "cheap labour". The effect is these people are treated appallingly and British workers are not competitive and have been eradicated from large parts of this sector. Then the Brexiteers scream that "EE people stole their jobs" and there are "too many of them". The British created this problem themselves. You can't have your cake and eat it. You've allowed the influx of EE workers because you've planned to make easy money on them and when this obviously led to the above, all of a sudden it's their fault. It's bonkers.

These jobs should be offered as shift work on National Living Wage at least - to everyone. The market would then regulate itself and it would become very clear how many foreign workers are actually needed.

@firstmentat I agree that some of them are. But you can't say that about all of them, the issues I've raised have been well documented for many years now and not much is being done about it. I am of mixed, Western and Eastern European origin and I know people from all backgrounds who have done this work in the UK and the experiences they've had. Whilst some share your view, to some they were far from positive.

I don't really see the problem in it provided they are paid right. It's not right that migrants aren't paid right either or get crap conditions like living accommodation. It needs to change.

Problem is if we don't do it, who is going to? We just won't have food if they don't take people on or no one takes a job. Something has to give.

The living wage isn’t less than British workers. They all get the same wage British and overseas. I’m not wrong!

I get very tired of hearing how lazy and feckless British workers are. I do believe that if it was aimed at any other demographic it would be an "ism" of some kind. Enough already.

I think you've misunderstood, National Living Wage isn't less than British workers, I've never said otherwise. I said many EE workers are not paid the same, which is true.

Agencies used to deliberately choose Eastern European fruit pickers not because of their experience but because the farmers / companies would pay them very little - often as little as £2-3/hr as the cost of ‘accomodation’ was taken from from the salary. British workers need to be paid national minimum wage and so are often ignored - the farmers that flew over the migrants had a lot of British applicants but they ignored them all in favour of what will be untrained migrants.