Unemployment in the UK

[Mordac]

How are the feckless indigenous unable to pull fruit & veg from the ground?

Yet they're on the beeb complaining the loans are not forthcoming... unf£$ken believable.

At the moment we're not supposed to leave our houses. So travelling hundreds of miles to pick asparagus or whatever isn't even an option. It's probably safer and more practical to transport a group from airport to farm, rather than have thousands of people roaming around looking for fruit & veg picking work.

[darmstadt]

At the moment we're not supposed to leave our houses. So travelling hundreds of miles to pick asparagus or whatever isn't even an option. It's probably safer and more practical to transport a group from airport to farm, rather than have thousands of people roaming around looking for fruit & veg picking work.

Surely you could use exactly the same procedure? Register, get accepted, get picked up from home and taken to place of employment and then you live there. No problems with that is there?

Romania actually has stricter isolation procedures in place than the UK, obviously they managed it...

[vetran]

Proof that there are people in the UK that will not pick fruit, unless they are down to their last pound. Plus UK people have benefits and furlough money.

Another benefit to being Romanian is the big difference in minimum wage, around £2.80
An hour over there. So they come here and triple their income.


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

A mate of mine is a Cat C Lorry driver and was unemployed for a while a decade ago he was regularly offered £7 an hour (at the time minimum wage) to drive lorries which he declined because his benefits were more than that. If he had gone out to work his family would have been poorer to do a job that cost a few thousands to certify for.

Fruit picking is offering now £8/9 an hour i.e. minimum wage and you face living in a caravan with 5 others paying about £60 a week to catch corona-virus.


As you point out if they were paying £27 an hour (the equivalent to the pay the Romanians will get) they would probably have hundreds of thousands of applicants.

[vetran]

How are the feckless indigenous unable to pull fruit & veg from the ground?

Yet they're on the beeb complaining the loans are not forthcoming... unf£$ken believable.

Maybe they are a bit more intelligent than you and don't want to do back breaking work for minimum wage losing out on benefits?

Its not as if UC has not been amended so if they do 2 weeks picking asparagus for minimum wage they wait 5 weeks for UC and lower benefits.

Now maybe if we offered the unemployed an incentive to pick food and keep their benefits?

[darmstadt]

Fruit picking is offering now £8/9 an hour i.e. minimum wage and you face living in a caravan with 5 others paying about £60 a week to catch corona-virus.


As you point out if they were paying £27 an hour (the equivalent to the pay the Romanians will get) they would probably have hundreds of thousands of applicants.

Could you give a link to those facts and figures?

[vetran]

Could you give a link to those facts and figures?

try indeed

Harvest Worker (Outdoors) - Evesham - Indeed.co.uk

Evesham[COLOR=#6F6F6F !important]
Full-time, Temporary
[COLOR=#6F6F6F !important]
£8.72 an hour[/COLOR]
[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#2D2D2D !important]COG Foods are currently looking for a number of Harvest Workers based at sites in and around the Evesham area. Due to a period of seasonal growth we are looking for a number of field workers for contracts running until the end of summer. There may be overtime available and the possibility of a permanent contract after 12 weeks worked for the correct candidates. (Own transport will be essential due to the location)
[COLOR=#2D2D2D !important]Please note that this work will be outdoors.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#2D2D2D !important]Working within this role your standard duties will be:[/COLOR]

• Picking Fruit/Vegetables in an agricultural field
• Grading of fresh produce
• Operating machinery as and when required
• Inspection of crops by hand

[COLOR=#2D2D2D !important]Standard Working Hours:[/COLOR]

• Day Shift 0700-1700 Monday-Friday. Overtime available after the shift and also on some Saturdays & Sundays

[COLOR=#2D2D2D !important]Other benefits of working for this business include:[/COLOR]

• 28 days Paid Annual Leave pro-rata for PAYE (inclusive of statutory holiday)
• Online payslips
• Weekly pay
• Pension contribution
• On-going assignments

[COLOR=#2D2D2D !important]Job Types: Full-time, Temporary[/COLOR]
[/COLOR]
Salary: £8.72 /hour

[vetran]

Analysis from the grocer (before covid)

Why are so few Brits prepared to pick fruit? | Analysis & Features | The Grocer

But that alone won’t solve the problem. Politicians have to accept the UK will need seasonal workers from abroad, and it needs to create the right conditions now to ensure those workers are willing to come and work in this country, growers say. They want to see measures such as a new Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS).“For decades, the UK has had a visa scheme to allow seasonal workers to work in the country picking fruit and veg for a limited period and then go home again,” says Munday. “This was abolished in 2013 and it needs to be reinstated.”
“Anybody that thinks SAWS can be replaced by students and unemployed is, frankly, delusional,” agrees Hardman at Hops Labour.
In particular, politicians must resist the temptation to think they can push unemployed people into farm jobs. “The DWP Welfare to Work scheme was an unmitigated disaster,” says Hardman. “We had about 100 people, and after 12 weeks we had one left. The majority of them walked off the job within two days.”
Olins at British Summer Fruit sees just one way to make farm work more attractive to Brits: “Move it to urban farms, pay in excess of £10 an hour, offer work between 9-5pm with no weekend work and ensure the work is easy!”

The industry don't want to pay the wages?

[darmstadt]

try indeed

Harvest Worker (Outdoors) - Evesham - Indeed.co.uk

A mate of mine is a Cat C Lorry driver and was unemployed for a while a decade ago he was regularly offered £7 an hour (at the time minimum wage) to drive lorries which he declined because his benefits were more than that. If he had gone out to work his family would have been poorer to do a job that cost a few thousands to certify for.

Fruit picking is offering now £8/9 an hour i.e. minimum wage and you face living in a caravan with 5 others paying about £60 a week to catch corona-virus.


As you point out if they were paying £27 an hour (the equivalent to the pay the Romanians will get) they would probably have hundreds of thousands of applicants.

And the highlighted bit....

[Mordac]

Surely you could use exactly the same procedure? Register, get accepted, get picked up from home and taken to place of employment and then you live there. No problems with that is there?

Romania actually has stricter isolation procedures in place than the UK, obviously they managed it...

Only that such a process doesn't exist, as far as I can see. One can apply to individual farms, but the travel and living arrangements are your own responsibility.
My physio would have a fit if she found out I'd been working on a farm, so it's academic in my case. /relief mode

[darmstadt]

Only that such a process doesn't exist, as far as I can see. One can apply to individual farms, but the travel and living arrangements are your own responsibility.
My physio would have a fit if she found out I'd been working on a farm, so it's academic in my case. /relief mode

As far as I know the farms, or agencies, provide the board and accommodation for these temporary workers. I mean, with the new 'foreigner' rules, how are the Romanians going to get anywhere to live?

It's not just the UK but Germany are doing this too. The first East Europeans are currently arriving here to pick the asparagus and I've been winding up the right wingers here who bleat on about 'German jobs for German people' asking why they're not doing this work (picking asparagus is really, really back breaking.) The tuliptiest part of this is that the East Europeans all go back before 115 days otherwise Germany would then be responsible for their healthcare...