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.

How fucking rude OP. I also suspect that you are pretty thick if you think that the reason British people don’t do these jobs is because we are lazy.

I know lots of furloughed people who have applied for work on farms but been declined due to concern about whether they can do extra hours whilst furloughed.

The reason British people don’t do these jobs in general is to get away with paying the bear minimum because as a nation we no longer pay the true price of food.
If all furloughed people have to do these jobs then what about those, like me, who are chronically ill and have chosen work that fits with their health. At the moment I am relapsing badly and need medical attention but I can’t get it due to COVID. I am able to WFH but can barely walk. If I get furloughed there’s no way in hell I would be able to fruit pick.

I am a photographer. I'm also a single parent of 3. Eldest 18 but ASD. Youngest 11. Middle child 15. I can leave them for a while but not all day together. I am desperate or work. My work has dried up overnight. I have applied for:

Amazon
Tesco
Farming jobs

I am 50. I have chronic arthritis and am awaiting a knee replacement. I will still do whatever I can to ensure I replace my normal income.

Tesco: never got back to me after interview
Amazon: full time nights only and completely impractical in my circumstances
Farming jobs: never heard back

I'm happy to do whatever it takes to support my family but it really isn't as simple as it might appear. I'm applying for everything and anything. Companies are just not replying.

If you honestly believe that anyone should live and work in shitty conditions just so that they can say they have a job, then you are no better than those who wanted poor people sent to workhouses in the Olden days.

The objection has never been simply about “forriners taking our jobs” it’s about the fact that by paying crappy wages to people who are willing to live piled up in a portacabin, working 14 hours a day, the whole job economy is thrown out

So. You voted for Brexit rather than fucking voting to improve the working conditions of those picking YOUR food? Yep, we see you.

Most of the farms I know don't want unskilled local labour. They want the regular gangs that know the work and are used to it.

It's physically demanding work which can be outdoors in all weathers. Most furloughed staff are retail or office based (most of the factories are still running). They're not used to this type of sustained physical effort required - particularly for crops like asparagus, which is back-breaking.

It's skilled work, knowing what and how to pick. Making sure only the crop at the right stage of development/ripeness or of the right is harvested and that it's not damaged in doing so. Making sure it's prepared efficiently and to the required standard.

You can't take a forty people off the street and get the same efficiency you do with an experienced gang. It would take a couple of weeks to teach them what to do and many weeks for them to get conditioned to it.

It's the sort of suggestion made by people that want to bring back the death penalty and national service.

Why shouldn't people furloughed pick fruit? Are they too good for fruit picking? They are being paid to sit at home and do nothing.

Hasn’t taken long for the othering and resentment to furloughed people to start, has it. You do realise most of them would rather be back in the jobs they are actually productive in tomorrow? This has been forced on them, especially those in industries that have been forced to close.

Do you also think the unemployed should work for benefits?

The hapless muppet who was wheeled out today was George Useless Eustace, Cornish MP and DEFRA minister, who's family just happen to own a massive fruit farm.

We have had years of people bashing people in benefits calling them “work shy” and lazy, so I assume that is only fair that if you are furloughed you try to help by getting another job. Whatever that is, and so what if you have children, why did you dare to have them if this could happen?

I hope these times bring compassion and understanding towards people who for one reason or another find themselves in the same position you are now.

Best of luck!

Hasn’t taken long for the othering and resentment to furloughed people to start, has it

Yep. Just wait till it happens to them.

In France, it was suggested (by a govt minister) that teachers should get fruit/veg picking. That’s gone down an absolute storm.

If I were on furlough I would, a change from working in the office, fresh air and nice weather at the mo.

People on furlough can actually earn 2 wages per day, one furlough pay and one temp job pay.

So people can be making more money on furlough than those of us still working full time who are having to work longer hours than normal to do the tasks of colleagues furloughed as "there is no work for them".

Grr

It seems like no one is thinking outside of the box yet. Split the long summer days into 2 shifts, so 8 hour days for pickers, not 16. Brits won't sleep in ratty caravans, so borrow buses/coaches to ferry them from nearest towns. Sure there are spare vehicles lying around unused at the moment. Farmers can't meet the minimum wages, simply not profitable, so the government will have to top them up (furloughed workers or not, who cares if they're willing and able?) There's no earthly reason fruit should rot in the ground, or farmers should have to go bankrupt if the people in charge started to make useful decisions. And later once this has all died down, we need to have a national conversation about how our food is bloody well produced, charge more for milk and other produce, and start treating our farmers (and casual labour) with a bit of respect.

Just for interest the MP for Redruth and Camborne George Eustace who took the briefing this afternoon has an interest as his family own a huge farm here in Cornwall.

www.trevaskisfarm.co.uk/

Most on here seem to be under the delusion that fruit picking is paid at NMW when it is actually piece rate work.

You get paid for a "unit" of production.

One of the brilliant things about this is that farmers can reject whole batches and not pay for them yet keep the produce.

Throw in to that rent for crap accommodation, food, and in some cases additional facilities such as clothes washing.

Can't for the life of me understand why people wouldn't want to do it (sarcasm just in case you missed it)

FrippEnos this is sort of what I was getting at - the phrasing is interesting on the job ads. You've confirmed what I was hoping wasnt the case. How is this legal?

What many people doesn't understand is that the farmers employ people throughout "agencies", exactly for the same reason why Amazon or any other big labor intensive place does, and the agency's over the years became focused on providing meat on the cheap.

Many gang leaders are eastern Europeans with good connections and good reach to recruit workers.

What's wrong with UK workers.

1. Location. Many people are just simply geographically on the wrong place. Farmers won't pay for any expenses, so if you need to be in Kent at 4:30 then there's no point to apply from West London is it? And most inquiries starts with the question "are you paid to get there " ... no you're not.

1. The local agencies quickly fill up the places with existing eastern Europeans who has been layed off or otherwise not working in other sectors. You would never stand a chance against an agency offer - they come in and say - we will give you all the people you want and the only thing you need to do is sign here.

1. Due to a globalised market some just think its a simple process that farmers need to pay more. Actually, the money is not bad. It's back breaking hard work but the hour rate is not all that bad at all. And since the price is X they won't change up cause you as an individual moan about no payed travel and no free lunch provided ect. The price is the price. A pound more on the wage and the stuff comes cheaper from Spain, thats the benefit of being in a globalised market.

Exactly @binkyboinky I’m still working (from home) and my husband is furloughed, I’d rather be in my position. His job has been closed down by the government and now he’s looking after the kids while I work, one who has a disability, he never asked to be sitting at home for nothing.

It seems like no one is thinking outside of the box yet. Split the long summer days into 2 shifts, so 8 hour days for pickers, not 16. Brits won't sleep in ratty caravans, so borrow buses/coaches to ferry them from nearest towns.

Look at a map. Look at the areas where most food is grown (East Anglia) - which towns are you going to bus people in from? Remember that towns in these areas are mostly based on the agricultural industry (processing factories, agricultural engineering) so there are not hundreds of furloughed fit and able bodied people to go around - these businesses are still working.

I'll hazard a guess that you've already got your excuse why you shouldn't be getting on one of these buses?

@AntiSocialInjusticePacifist If you bother yourself to read the main Coronavirus thread you will see that perfectly healthy people in their 30s and 40s are at risk of developing blood clots from Covid 19

Oh and do be careful what you wish for. Because if an overweight person is blue lighted to hospital from a fruit farm because of a heart attack that could well mean they are too busy to take YOU to hospital should you catch the virus.

Also just to add on from my previous post... I can only speak for my in laws farm as it is the only one I have knowledge of... they do not force their workers to pay for "rotten caravans." In laws have static caravans on site for hire for ANY workers who wish to stay in them while working on the farm (they dont just employ EU workers, they have experienced local workers also). It is completely their choice if they wish to pay to stay in them. All local and EU workers are paid the same hourly rate. My MIL also cooks breakfast/lunches/dinners, available for ALL workers at cost (much like a work canteen) but again this is the choice of each individual worker and isnt forced. All workers get paid the same, and how they spend their wages is up to them. They have even built a play park for EU workers who bring their families and children while they are here, and made a make shift waterslide last summer for the kids to play on and have a thank you BBQ party with a bonfire etc before they leave each year. Theres been quite a few returning families over the years, who have become good friends. They are most definitely not slave labour, they are good, honest, hardworking people who are very much valued and appreciated regardless of what country they come from.

I obviously can only speak of my experience at my in laws farm, but just wanted to say - dont tar all farmers with the same brush. There are honest, moral farmers who employ EU workers and pay them fairly, who dont exploit them and value their hard work and experience.

not everyone lives near a fruit farm
East Anglia is not exactly commutable from Romania, is it? The pickers would be accommodated in barracks, just like what happens every year.

Have kids been mentioned by the gov yet?
I'm surprised if not, it's what kids did in the war, not much school.
My Dad had to pick potatoes he was only about 9. My mum was in the Land girls until she was 14.
It's funny seeing the public info films of the time, they're all on youtube and very interesting.

Doginatent, no need to be personal! If you call it an excuse, I have to look after my young children. Whatever. My point is that there are solutions, they're just outside of the box thinking, and involve (big) changes to current practices. I don't have all the answers, and it's not my field (no pun intended) but people bleating "but that's not how we do it, it's too hard" is going to get us nowhere.

Devlesko

Much as some posters don't want to believe it. Fruit picking was done by teenagers and students not that far back (30 - 40 years maybe) and was seen as a good job for the money.

@Haffiana don't be ridiculous. I'm a remainer, but I don't remember any voting choice for improving the working conditions and pay for the lowest paid workers. But I do remember whenever anyone tried raising the actual problem they were shouted down as stupid racists. I blame Brexit on those that dismissed those concerns, not those that voted leave for that reason.

Firstly my furlough agreement (about which I had no choice at all) specifically says I can't work elsewhere.
Secondly, can I just say how fed up I am of the boring furloughed baiting threads.
No, my wage is not being topped up.
Yes, I've paid tax and NI all my working life and will still do so from my reduced salary and finally, would I rather be working? No, because my long term employers have proven they don't give a shit about their workforce and despite having a very profitable business have dumped us at first opportunity and grabbed money never intended for such a business but I have no control over that.
I appreciate that I am fortunate in that I can take the 20% pay cut without too much impact and am enjoying the time with my family. I have no intention at all of picking fruit or any other manual work.
Sorry OP that you seem so bitter.