150 Rumanians arrive for fruit and veg picking.

[User00035]

I did cucumber picking in Australia. Wouldn't say it was particularly hard work, just back aching from the bending, but it was extremely monotonous and boring.
I wouldn't want to do it forever but I'd do it for a season rather than do nothing.

 

[tikka_madras]

I'm not entirely sure that's the case, to be honest. I remember when I lived in Dundee years ago, berry-picking season was eagerly-anticipated by a lot of folk, a large proportion of them unemployed. Local fruit farms would lay on free transport, and whoever wanted a days work could just climb aboard the 'berry bus'. It was a great way for them to escape the town, and make a few extra pounds for themselves. Some may sneer at unemployed folk, but I remember a lot of them were damn hard grafters! But of course, our wise and just government decided that tax-free earnings, regardless how small, were the work of the devil and the much-loved tradition was destroyed. Now, of course, we're seeing the results of this idiotic policy.

Edit: and I'm sure these European workers are all paying their fair share of tax. I'm sure they are . . . .

I’m sure they’re claiming their full share of benefits...

 

[Grannysmith]

I dont think its lazyness i think its because growers can get away with paying the romanians less.
I had a construction company for 30 years and the romanian worker was as good as the brits and honest
But then i paid him the same as the brits!

 

[the_greenman]

I wonder how many of the people on here that are complaining about lazy British would stand a single day doing what these Romanians do. It’s a tough job. I for one am grateful to them, Do you think the farmers want to spend time on labour with no skills that dont want to be there,

I'm complaining about lazy British.. But that's because I appreciate the fact that others of whatever nation as far as I'm concerned have come here to work. I certainly wouldn't knock what they do. My gripe about the lazy Brits is they are usually the 1st to pipe up about "johnny foreigner" stealing the job they wouldn't touch with a barge pole!

 

[mudman]

living in the arable east where most farmers could be best described as business managers, a days field work (manual not from a machine cab) would see most farmers off, just like the rest of Joe public, myself included. Very few folk now are used to hard manual graft.

 

[User00025]

I once did a day of that admittedly i was a lot older but it was ***king hard work if you weren't used to it.

We used to bale cart in the hols, Whitsun hay, Summer straw. Bloody hay bales got heavy as you got them on the fork and pitched them 4 bales high.
Before straw bales used to pitch⁷

 

[User00035]

Hay bales were a bit of a pig. The worst were the badly baled ones. Bendy, slack strings heavy one end. Or bad dusty hay which was horrible and made my eyes swell up. Lovely sweet green hay wasn't too bad and I preferred sisal baler twine to the orange nylon stuff.

Some people wore gloves but I couldn't get on with them. I just suffered for the first few days till my hands scabbed up.

I remember bale hauling as barn fire season. Usually caused by knackered old petrol engines on elevators. I get a wave of nostalgia when I see an old Lister elevator rotting in the corner of some yard with weeds growing through it and all the slats gone.

 

[hunta]

I dont think its lazyness i think its because growers can get away with paying the romanians less.
I had a construction company for 30 years and the romanian worker was as good as the brits and honest
But then i paid him the same as the brits!

The Romanians, Bulgarians, Polish and any other EU workers, including any Brits, that are picking or packing will be on the same wage for the same job. Mobile phones and social media mean that everybody knows their rights. Also growers these days are audited so much that they cannot afford to break the law. If they fail an audit they risk losing their contract to sell their produce. Also all workers are "on the books" so pay tax like anyone else. Migrant workers are not able to claim any benefits.
As far as Brits working on fruit and veg farms is concerned I know that several thousand people have approached growers enquiring about work. On average about 10% of these people were interested enough to attend interviews. I am aware of several growers that have recently taken on Brits to help with tunnel work, planting, pruning etc but there is no way that British workers will pick all UK fruit and veg. My hope is that harvest teams will include a reasonable number of Brits. The rest will be have to be from the EU otherwise the crops won't be picked.

 

[hunta]

Hay bales were a bit of a pig. The worst were the badly baled ones. Bendy, slack strings heavy one end. Or bad dusty hay which was horrible and made my eyes swell up. Lovely sweet green hay wasn't too bad and I preferred sisal baler twine to the orange nylon stuff.

Some people wore gloves but I couldn't get on with them. I just suffered for the first few days till my hands scabbed up.

I remember bale hauling as barn fire season. Usually caused by knackered old petrol engines on elevators. I get a wave of nostalgia when I see an old Lister elevator rotting in the corner of some yard with weeds growing through it and all the slats gone.

Yep. Been there too. Hay bales from meadow land also seemed particularly heavy. Used to pee me off that I, in my mid teens, worked as hard or harder than the men but got paid much less. We weren't allowed to rope the loads either because a properly stacked load doesn't need a rope!

 

[kenbro]

How did you know he was into digging then?☻

Did ya mean diggin or doggin?
Ken.

 

[kenbro]

I wonder how many of the people on here that are complaining about lazy British would stand a single day doing what these Romanians do. It’s a tough job. I for one am grateful to them, Do you think the farmers want to spend time on labour with no skills that dont want to be there,

Yav not bin lissnin, we did that work before we left school, or, before we went into school for the day!
Bin there don it.
Ken.

 

[CarlW]

I would earn enough each summer holiday on the cabbages and cauliflowers to pay a whole year's university accommodation.

Never could understand why my parents wouldn't just pay the damned bill like all the others.

I do now though...

 

[Overlay]

What are they going to be picking in the middle of April?

pruning, mowing, tying the fruit limbs down for the sun / blossom, putting up plastic frame covers, nets need to be in place shortly. Loads to do

 

[Steve88]

How much are you, the consumer, prepared to pay for British grown fruit and veg, compared to what you're paying now?

I think the point is being missed .how much are the flights costing ? what are the imported workers being paid ? compared to native brits doing the same thing .And if there are paid the same how are they offsetting the cost of flights? It doze not add up to me, This has little to do with picking fruit .

 

[hoodwink]

Yav not bin lissnin, we did that work before we left school, or, before we went into school for the day!
Bin there don it.
Ken.

Been there wouldn’t do it now though!

 

[Warren79]

They all come over on easy jet one way tickets to Luton boom the return when there done! I spent 2 years driving a taxi to supplement my income and at least half was picking up and dropping off worker's, they do it for our minimum wage which is a good wage back home its all arranged by agencys the majority i spoke with who spoke English worked 3 months on 3 months off.

 

[FrenchieBoy]

I think the point is being missed .how much are the flights costing ? what are the imported workers being paid ? compared to native brits doing the same thing .And if there are paid the same how are they offsetting the cost of flights? It doze not add up to me, This has little to do with picking fruit .

I think (But I might be wrong) that they are balancing up the costs of getting "pickers/workers" in compared with the losses they would face if they were not able to get their crops picked, especially if they simply can not get enough British pickers to work for them.
If I remember correctly most of the foreign workers are employed through an agency called "Concordia".

 

[countrryboy]

I wonder how Oz and NZ are getting on for pickers as ironically usually a lot of btprit backpackers do it.
Quite a high turnover rate thou .

 

[TomT3]

Reading most posts it would appear something has been overlooked... don’t forget foreign labour is willing to work for a lot less than their British counterparts.

Don’t get me wrong when I was still on the the tools I’ve worked a lot in lazy benefit scroungers houses and don’t deny British can be lazy especially today’s generation (the one after mine).
One of the big issues is the employer getting away with paying crap money. A British worker can’t live on £30 a day-a group of Eastern European’s sharing a house or staying in a caravan for months can..,especially if it is all cash

 

[MW73]

This gives a bit more insight into the situation..

British workers reject fruit-picking jobs as Romanians flown in

Contract length, farm location and caring duties cited as reasons for turning down work

www.theguardian.com