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.

home grown

@Rosehip10 You're missing the point, entirely.

Is this for real?!

Furloughed workers are WORKERS, ie not lazy or feckless people. It's not our fault this has happened. We're TAX PAYERS, why should we be punished for being furloughed?

I never voted for Brexshit, why should I have to pick up after the workers that the BRITISH PEOPLE VOTED TO GET RID OF. It was never my career plan to pick fruit! This is disgusting and all down to the Tories' absolutely heinous mismanagement of this country. Can we get rid of them now, please?

British workers aren't too lazy or incompetent. They just refuse to be handled by gangers and made to live in sheds and get paid peanuts for back breaking work. Do we want this level of self-esteem to drop in our country? Should we be aiming for a two tier society of filthy rich and forelock-tugging peasants?

I don't think it's OK for Eastern Europeans to be treated this way either, just so we can enjoy cheap fruit and veg but at least the ones who are working here by choice are motivated by the fact that the crap wages they earn here will go a hell of a lot further back home. Anyone who lives permanently in UK working for less than minimum wage have some of the highest rents, mortgages and utilities bills in the world and that won't change.

None of the farms near us need anybody. My son applied not lazy only went self employed a month ago. Not entitled to 80 percent.

Farms want people that live on the job.

Odd post!

Ah a fellow Kernow girl crackofdoom yes I've worked on a farm too alongside mostly locals and just a couple of people from the EU, yep worked like a bastard didnt have any problem sleeping though!

The supermarket rhetoric is so misguided and ill informed its embarrassing.

The consumer drives the whole cog and always have done. They say one thing and do another.

The whole of society needs to look very closely at their own actions. Not their wants or fancy statements but their actions.

I absolutely include myself in that.

Doing some manual labour to get the obesity rate down in this country, which seems to be a risk factor for covid-19 might not be the worst thing in the world at this point.

I would cheerfully do it. Pub manager so first out and last back in, assuming I dont get made redundant in the meantime. Sadly I am a lone parent and dont live anywhere near the areas that need people otherwise I would be there.

Thank fuck I have a job. I'm disabled. I am NOT PHYSICALLY CAPABLE of picking fruit.

This was discussed previously and the consensus seems to be farmers don't really want British workers. Migrant workers can be paid less since they'll live on-site, in accommodation that costs less to provide than is deducted from their wages. And they're far less likely to object to or report their employers breaking the law.

I'm sure a lot of British people could do it, but we'll be more expensive and slower, especially people like myself who are not accustomed to manual labour.

Crikey this is one angry website, and I’ve read a few 😁

Perhaps drop the left/right division Shite and Enjoy a cuppa tea.

Musicforsmorks welcome to mumsnet

PhilSwagielka I dont think anyone has asked you to?

So furloughed workers should pick fruit.
This means they should leave their own areas and move to where there is work - not allowed
live together in dorms - massive increase of Covid-risk
and what - abandon their children? Set the tinies to work too?

How out of touch are the people who say these things - have they no critical thinking faculties at all? No ability to imagine the reality of what they are suggesting?

British people aren't lazy. They're less easily exploited by gang masters who take advantage of immigrants.

Apparently tens of thousands of British people have applied and been ignored.
They are not attractive to the greedy farmers and supermarkets who exploit foreign workers! Workers who live piled up in caravans in appalling conditions and are paid the so little they will work 14 hour shifts to make ends meet.

My in laws are a farming family. They work 16 hours most days, work 7 days a week, 365 days a year come rain, hail or shine. They make a ridiculous amount less than minimum wage. Stop calling them greedy and saying that they're exploiting people making them work long hours for little pay when farmers are working under the same conditions themselves - the consumer does not want to pay for the cost of a decent farmers wage, causing supermarkets to compete with each other to keep costs down, while also throwing importing farm produce from other countries into the mix - this in turn causes the farmers to have to cut costs somewhere.

So yes, people may be applying for these fruit picking jobs. But have no experience, and a large amount of posters have ridiculous naive expectations of what the work entails. It is incredibly labour intensive, relentless and long. People also seem to think its unskilled work - it is not. Farmers need to guarantee that they are getting maximum output from their staff otherwise they wont cover their costs. They simply do not have the time and money to train people (and yes you most definitely need training, time to build up your stamina and speed to meet the efficiency standards needed). The foreign workers coming over get paid in accommodation and food, as well as a wage which helps keeps the farmers costs down, thus the consumers costs down which is ultimately what drives this cutting of costs (not greedy farmers) - British people dont need that accommodation etc so this pushes prices up.

There are very few jobs that have transferable skills to the intense, high speed work involved in fruit picking, so to suggest that anyone who has been furloughed can just go and do it as well as someone who has been doing it for years is frankly ludicrous. Not to mention the fact that many of the industries furloughed wouldn't be able to hack that kind of hard labour - not because they are lazy but because they are not used to it, and farmers cannot afford (time wise or money wise) to give them the opportunity to get used to it.

Theres a shortage of lorry drivers, nurses, delivery drivers etc. - I cant just apply for them with no experience or training and get pissy when I get turned down because I'm at home doing nothing and the position needs field - if I cant do the job it's not going to work.

Here is a farm which sells their fruit in Waitrose. Very MN

www.clockhousefarm.co.uk/work-with-us/

5am starts.
You need to be bussed field to field.
If you don't live on their doorstep and bear in mind there is no public transport to get you there.... how are the general British public supposed to go to work?

When I was a teen, you could turn up at a field in your village with all your other fellow villagers to pick the fruit that was ready that week. We just did because it was local news for the local farmer.

That's why we don't do it anymore. Farms are conglomerate entities.

@MumsnetHQ

Can you explain why this thread with the opening statements by the OP hasn't been removed? Does Mumsnet permit race hate crime?

Has anyone reported it?!

It is consumers driving the crap wages. Just read this website people raving about rock bottom prices at Aldi or special promotions in Tesco etc

I've never read anyone say 'oh I've paid an extra £1 for strawberries from Waitrose I'm so glad'.

NB I also choose based on price often, but we should be honest we have chosen to support the cheapest possible supply chains and that means crap pay for workers.

The supermarket rhetoric is so misguided and ill informed its embarrassing

ah ha ha Ok if you say so, of cause I won't know. you carry on then.

it's all part of an economy and balancing act.

Yes people want food cheap. the supermarkets supply cheap food but that is up to them, if food was more expensive where would people go to buy cheaper?

orders need to be filled, prices(for farmers) are set on what's reasonably for time of year, yields, amounts, and from where.
(some farmers are lucky and can get a set price for the year but)

lots of people do need food to be cheap because wages are not great.

oh I don't even know why I bothering.......

I don't think its so much that British are lazy and don't want to work as is often claimed. I suspect its much more to do with the fact that British workers expect minimum wage, where others will work for peanuts. So the cheaper ones get the job.