People Being Flown In To Pick Crops.....

[Zacs-Master]

Eastern Europeans to be flown in to pick fruit and veg https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52293061

I suppose they have no alternative. Brits will demand wages which would make the produce unsaleable (especially to supermarkets), I assume?

Thoughts?

[andres]

It's amazing how,as I posted in a thread last week , that France had over 200thousand of their recently unemployed come forward and volunteer to do this kind of work and here in the UK we can't get get anyone .

[Old_Geezer]

Another thing that isn't sensible is paying dole money when there are positions vacant. Nor is bringing in labour who take their earnings out of the country when one has folk here who would spend wages in our own economy. Farmers should concentrate on crops that demand a high price so wage level has less effect. Where government decides an industry such as basic farming is vital to the country it needs to get involved and should either/or/and a) subsidise that industry b) tax imports to ensure a level playing field between home farmers paying a decent wage and importers of goods harvested by low pay labour.

[Togo]

Do you think that this is the same group of "workers" who were flown into Germany a few weeks back? Flown in to pick the Asparagus crop that was in danger of spoiling because they did not have "local" pickers to harvest it.

[ladybirder]

Spicey @ 12.32 - brilliant haha. xx

[sevenOP]

Is that 'the working class' they are importing ?

[waterboatman]

The workshy layabouts on the dole should be made to do the picking.
If they don't do it, they don't get their dole.

[emmie]

many Brits have volunteered...

[waterboatman]

We used to do it when the boys were young, they loved it when they got payed at the end of the day.

[sevenOP]

Do the workshy rentiers get a free pass waterboatman?

or their interest earnings removed ?

[fiction-factory]

rentiers- a word I last saw in Das Kapital in my student days

[waterboatman]

I've no idea, but the ones that did volunteer to help with the potato picking never had their dole stopped, they were still available for a proper, full time job if one was offered. How it works now I have no idea.

[sevenOP]

"I've no idea, but the ones that did volunteer to help with the potato picking never had their dole stopped, they were still available for a proper, full time job if one was offered."

Unpaid labour ?

Way to go, eh ?

[roslyn251254]

it's not unpaid ..they're getting their dole money for picking the crops!

[sevenOP]

"it's not unpaid ..they're getting their dole money for picking the crops!"

and not responsible 'for looking for work' and 'being available for work' ?

[roslyn251254]

waterboatman and myself were talking about "the workshy ones"...

Volunteers (as waterboatman states ...the potato pickers) would still be available for work if it was offered

[sevenOP]

"Volunteers (as waterboatman states ...the potato pickers) would still be available for work if it was offered"

just to clarify roslyn, but they would not be looking for work ?

[roslyn251254]

I suppose it's a matter of "conscience" then.... go crop picking and still get your dole money...or do nothing and still get it ???!!!.....

[sevenOP]

roslyn, the UK minimum wage is over three times dole money.

[fiction-factory]

I'm not sure how the discussion has got onto this. The adverts for volunteers to work on farms says they will be paid at least minimum wage and some farms National Living Wage.
No mention of just getting dole money here
https://www.concordiavolunteers.org.uk/feed-the-nation

[jno]

according to the story this morning, the problem with getting locals to work is that many can't commit to the length of the contract, which may be months, or can't leave families (some farms require workers to live on site). That makes sense - the most likely candidates are young and footloose.

Also:

//I contacted farmers individually and initially I was told by one farmer he’d take as many workers as he could get, so I went on radio and social media and got 150 people. I know I could probably find 1,000 to 2,000 here because people are out of work.”

He was then told by the farmer that he needed a gangmaster’s licence if he was going to place that many workers on the market, which he was told would take 10 weeks to obtain.

“By that time the fruit and veg will have rotted and the borders will probably be reopened,” he said.//

Though others have been told it's now five days.

So anyway, they're flying Romanians in

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/17/british-workers-reject-fruit-picking-jobs-as-romanians-flown-in-coronavirus