The National Farmers' Union (NFU) said they need up to 70,000 fruit and vegetable pickers

We import 50% of our food. Just import the labour intensive crops and switch land use other produce (localise Irish beef, Belgian potatoes, French dairy, etc.).
 
ST what you rattling on about?

I quite clearly said why have farmers decided to fly in 1000 Romanians opposed to advertising these jobs, paying a fair wage and guaranteeing health and safety, social distance etc. Supermarkets and government departments have no issue recruiting on a whim at the moment but the farmers can’t? It’s quite clearly cheaper for them to operate on this way
 
boromike85 said:
Everyone wants fairness until it hits them in the pocket. Pay an extra quid for your strawberries and we don't have to import and exploit people to live in shipping containers and taking home half the minimum wage but it's all great because it's triple what they'd get in Romania.

I apologise for being against the exploitation of workers, no matter what their nationality, just so I can get some cheap fruit.

If they can't afford to operate by paying a fair wage for work in adequate conditions then the business model doesn't work.
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I'm not everyone.
 
SmallTown said:
So, going by Cooper Borisette logic, it's easier to fly people from a foreign country during a pandemic than it is to get people already in the country and "economically inactive" to the farms to work.

I'd love to know how that works. Maybe he can explain?
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This is part of the problem why all of the Brexit arguments are fruitless (excuse the pun). You have had multiple years of hearing the same arguments and still haven't learnt a thing.

Here is an advert from a farm advertising it's accommodation (£57.40pw to share a shipping container with 5 other people). They insist on taking people that will commit to the whole summer which is why all of the currently inactive people can't apply.

https://www.broadwaterfarm.biz/the-accommodation/

No wonder people won't do this job. If they want people to work for them, and not just some slaves from abroad that will keep quiet, then these practices need to change. They are quite frankly indefensible.
 
Why have they gone abroad?
From the BBC

‘Several UK growers have launched a recruitment drive, calling for local workers to join the harvest to prevent millions of tonnes of fruit and vegetables going to waste. However, concerns remain that they won't be able to fulfil the demand on farms’

I spend a lot of time in rural communities and the answers are always the same - those out of work un the UK don’t want ‘this kind of work’
 
See the job advert above as to why people in this country won't do the work based on that.

It's hypocrisy at it's finest to have a pop at people who voted for Brexit and support employers who are practically supporting slave labour.

Again advertise these jobs at least the minimum wage and guarantee health and safety and see what response you get. Clearly remainers are happy to exploit EU workers, being underpaid and living in poor conditions so they can keep a few pence off their fruit
 
Cooper671 said:
ST what you rattling on about?

I quite clearly said why have farmers decided to fly in 1000 Romanians opposed to advertising these jobs, paying a fair wage and guaranteeing health and safety, social distance etc. Supermarkets and government departments have no issue recruiting on a whim at the moment but the farmers can’t? It’s quite clearly cheaper for them to operate on this way
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Ok, I'll put it another way: Surely we have thought about this for when the Brexit transition period ends? We'll HAVE to employ the 8 million economically inactive then. We don't we just put whatever plan we have for that into place?

Rather than risking the lives of Romanians bring them into a covid-19 hotspot?

Surely you Brexiteers aren't too dumb to realise sometime this year we HAVE to employ the fabled 8 million. Why can't we do it now?
 
Cooper671 said:
It’s 90 mins by car, bike, public transport or walking. As people from outside can’t claim benefit for ; months that doesn’t apply to this.

Have to ask in this time of national emergency when supermarkets and government departments are hiring people on a whim on or above national minimum wage do the farmers find it more effective to fly 1000 Romanians in. Could have advertised that to people in the local area, guarenteed safety with social distance etc. Oh no we’ll fly 1000 Romanians in.. cheaper by any chance?
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Or it could be loyality? I'm sure most farms have the same people working for them on a seasonal basis year after year?
Not everything is a scandal.
 
1finny said:
Why have they gone abroad?
From the BBC

‘Several UK growers have launched a recruitment drive, calling for local workers to join the harvest to prevent millions of tonnes of fruit and vegetables going to waste. However, concerns remain that they won't be able to fulfil the demand on farms’

I spend a lot of time in rural communities and the answers are always the same - those out of work un the UK don’t want ‘this kind of work’
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If the money was fair, the conditions better, people would probably take these jobs.
It would mean your fruit and veg would cost more, and the farmers wouldn't get the
returns that they are getting at the moment. The up and down of it is money. Farmer
wants it picking as cheaply as possible ( you could be Martians) he won't care. Public
wants fruit and veg as cheap as possible they don't care who picks it. Its and down to
cash in the end.
 
Cooper671 said:
See the job advert above as to why people in this country won't do the work based on that.

It's hypocrisy at it's finest to have a pop at people who voted for Brexit and support employers who are practically supporting slave labour.

Again advertise these jobs at least the minimum wage and guarantee health and safety and see what response you get. Clearly remainers are happy to exploit EU workers, being underpaid and living in poor conditions so they can keep a few pence off their fruit
Click to expand...

I’m not sure what your level of experience is here but it doesn’t sound great.
I live and work in Lincolnshire and deal with most of these growers. These people behave really well. They pay living/min wage and have pretty good living conditions. (There will be exception, I’m sure but I genuinely haven’t come across one)
They have a finite time to pick crops and want certainty. They badly want to employ UK workers. If they were honest in public they would say most UK workers think this kind of work is beneath them. They all have stories of going on UK recruitment drives where most people leg it after a day.
It is a real problem that isn’t going to go away and we need a medium term solution. Short term it sounds like there is a willingness to allow workers in which is great for everyone.
The worry is what happens post Jan next year. It needs thinking about in advance and, perversely, the current problem may just force the issue to be resolved.
 
1finny said:
I’m not sure what your level of experience is here but it doesn’t sound great.
I live and work in Lincolnshire and deal with most of these growers. These people behave really well. They pay living/min wage and have pretty good living conditions. (There will be exception, I’m sure but I genuinely haven’t come across one)
They have a finite time to pick crops and want certainty. They badly want to employ UK workers. If they were honest in public they would say most UK workers think this kind of work is beneath them. They all have stories of going on UK recruitment drives where most people leg it after a day.
It is a real problem that isn’t going to go away and we need a medium term solution. Short term it sounds like there is a willingness to allow workers in which is great for everyone.
The worry is what happens post Jan next year. It needs thinking about in advance and, perversely, the current problem may just force the issue to be resolved.
Click to expand...

This is my point, it MUST have already been thought about, we have already Brexited? Surely we haven't "got Brexit done" without a coherent plan? Surely the government can't be that incompetent? We must already KNOW how we are going to get these 8 million economically inacitve people into the jobs that the hard working EU workers can no longer do?

I mean, surely?
 
SmallTown said:
Ok, I'll put it another way: Surely we have thought about this for when the Brexit transition period ends? We'll HAVE to employ the 8 million economically inactive then. We don't we just put whatever plan we have for that into place?

Rather than risking the lives of Romanians bring them into a covid-19 hotspot?

Surely you Brexiteers aren't too dumb to realise sometime this year we HAVE to employ the fabled 8 million. Why can't we do it now?
Click to expand...

*head in hands*

1. it’s not the government risking the Romanians it’s the farmers who want cheaper labour and you who seemingly who wants cheap fruit. Again if it was a proper wage guaranteeing health and safety these jobs might get taken up.

2. Again unless you hadn’t realised their is a pandemic going on. You clearly have no idea what is going on in government departments at the moment. You need work coaches to enable job seekers into work and possibly into these jobs (if they decide to pay legal amount). Who do you think is going to do the work to help these people into these jobs. Staff have been decimated at the DWP. What’s left are redeployed into priority areas such as processing claims making sure people get paid as quickly as possible.
 
Cooper671 said:
*head in hands*

1. it’s not the government risking the Romanians it’s the farmers who want cheaper labour and you who seemingly who wants cheap fruit. Again if it was a proper wage guaranteeing health and safety these jobs might get taken up.

2. Again unless you hadn’t realised their is a pandemic going on. You clearly have no idea what is going on in government departments at the moment. You need work coaches to enable job seekers into work and possibly into these jobs (if they decide to pay legal amount). Who do you think is going to do the work to help these people into these jobs. Staff have been decimated at the DWP. What’s left are redeployed into priority areas such as processing claims making sure people get paid as quickly as possible.
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That still doesn't explain why we can't put our Brexit plan into action? This is basically the same problem we'd be facing in January. Just do what we had planned to do then?
 
SmallTown said:
That still doesn't explain why we can't put our Brexit plan into action? This is basically the same problem we'd be facing in January. Just do what we had planned to do then?
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It isn't a government problem. It is a farmers doing things as cheaply as possible problem.

Why aren't you asking what the farmers are going to do when they can no longer import unskilled EU migrants? If you don't know by now then the answer is that they'll have to employ those people that currently won't do it for the pittance minus accommodation costs that they currently offer and will have to increase their compensation package.

1finny said:
Cooper - how much are they paying these workers?
Define cheaper please
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From the link I posted above is the pay page. They are offering 50p per hour above minimum wage but then there's over £200 per month of accommodation costs to come off that for the luxury of a shared shipping container with 5 strangers.

https://www.broadwaterfarm.biz/summer-fruit-picking-uk/

They will be selling food and everything else these people need at inflated prices from the onsite shop as well. It is obvious why they prefer importing labour and it is disgusting that we allow it to happen just to get cheaper fruit and veg and to line the pockets of farmers and supermarkets.

* Edited because I was looking at last year's minimum wage figures.
 
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Cooper671 said:
*head in hands*

1. it’s not the government risking the Romanians it’s the farmers who want cheaper labour and you who seemingly who wants cheap fruit. Again if it was a proper wage guaranteeing health and safety these jobs might get taken up.

2. Again unless you hadn’t realised their is a pandemic going on. You clearly have no idea what is going on in government departments at the moment. You need work coaches to enable job seekers into work and possibly into these jobs (if they decide to pay legal amount). Who do you think is going to do the work to help these people into these jobs. Staff have been decimated at the DWP. What’s left are redeployed into priority areas such as processing claims making sure people get paid as quickly as possible.
Click to expand...
Who are the folk demanding the cheap fruit and veg Coops?
 
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