Seasonal Farm Worker Shortage

[pastafarian]

There are plenty of European countries that pay considerably more towards their healthcare as a percentage of GDP! Maybe if we paid the staff a fair salary then more UK citizens would be willing to train (provided of course the incumbent government agrees to provide the training places!!!!

I totally agree with you, there is no excuse for relying on foreign workers to fill NHS gaps when we could given the correct investment source much more homegrown talent if the right incentives were in place.

Its been a betrayal of the NHS for decades, it has been very poorly managed by all.
I wish the NHS was completely depoliticised and taken out of the hands of grubby mp`s......there really must be some sort of truly independent body to run it free from politics but accountable to a cross party parliamentary body that would be in the better interest for all

 

[BigGully]

There are plenty of European countries that pay considerably more towards their healthcare as a percentage of GDP! Maybe if we paid the staff a fair salary then more UK citizens would be willing to train (provided of course the incumbent government agrees to provide the training places!!!!

There might be many things worth discussing in how the NHS might improve, but it seems actual wages are not one of them.

http://nursingcee.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/how-much-does-nurse-make-in-europe.html

France and Germany do better overall (not wages) with greater investment, but there is some level of public/private partnership that delivers better care.

Until those particularly from the left allow meaningful debate and stop seeing the NHS as some sacred cow then it is less likely to perform as well as those countries that do.

 

[sod1]

There are lots who can afford to travel and lots who would love to travel but can't afford it. The latter could easily fill the labour shortage

 

[sod1]

Just of interest, what's the average wage where you are?

What about the job situation and general cost of living, and more importantly does it feel less congested like the UK, are they building zillions of new homes to keep up with the numbers entering the country.

The average wage is not something I have knowledge of yet , but I can tell you that the average rent for a one bedroom furnished apartment is around 300/325 euros per pcm, people don't have a lot left over after food and bills. You can buy 1 bed apartments for around 45k euros which is beyond the reach of many. Here is not overcrowded but they are building new apartment blocks all the time so who knows what it will be like in say 10 years

 

[sod1]

Just of interest, what's the average wage where you are?

What about the job situation and general cost of living, and more importantly does it feel less congested like the UK, are they building zillions of new homes to keep up with the numbers entering the country.

In relation to the job situation in Brasov, many people try starting their own business, as for the cost of living, at the moment I am spending around 500euros per month including rent, once my apartment is ready that will drop to around 300 euros pcm. You can buy 2.5L of beer in the supermarket for little over £1

 

[Deleted member 22389]

In relation to the job situation in Brasov, many people try starting their own business, as for the cost of living, at the moment I am spending around 500euros per month including rent, once my apartment is ready that will drop to around 300 euros pcm. You can buy 2.5L of beer in the supermarket for little over £1

Sounds like good value for money over there.

 

[sod1]

Sounds like good value for money over there.

Absolutely, I have taken very early retirement , something I couldn't do in the UK.

 

[narly101]

Speaking here as someone who has been on both sides of this.
I worked in Spain and my wage was low, 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
Meanwhile here now I need 6 summer staff. British atitude is to turn up when they feel like it, go home early and never do any work when they are here. Foriegn staff turn up on time, work hard, ask for more hours and never let me down. All are on minimum wage plus bonus plus holiday pay.
Taking this past weekend as an example. Foriegn started at 9 am. British strolled in at 10:15 and sat down to eat breakfast.
British staff just don't want to work, end of.

Is this a generalism on the "british" staff, or just poor hiring?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Hard graft seems to come somehow easier to our EU and non-EU imports than to UK homegrown chavs. Maybe, due to UK education cuts, it's a learning process?

 

[ManOfSussex]

Hard graft seems to come somehow easier to our EU and non-EU imports than to UK homegrown chavs. Maybe, due to UK education cuts, it's a learning process?

There is also the fact that our EU and non-EU workers doing this work have grown up in rural areas and worked on small holdings etc and have good prior experience of doing this hard graft too. Our chavs haven't.

What's most depressing about this shortfall is there was already one late last summer after the vote and The NFU have been banging on for months about it and nothing's been done to help alleviate it.

 

[Baker lite]

Ideal work for students,trouble Is they're to lazy and precious to get up at dawns crack and go to bed at sun down,want everything given to them on a plate before joining the work force in their mid twenties,useless bunch of no good *****.

 

[Gwylan]

What's most depressing about this shortfall is there was already one late last summer after the vote and The NFU have been banging on for months about it and nothing's been done to help alleviate it.

I'm not sure what you mean by alleviate it. Surely, if the farmers have been banging on for months about a shortfall and they're still going on about it, then the farmers need to get their act together. I could understand their complaints if there were restrictions, but there's nothing stopping them getting workers from the EU at the moment ... just they could last year and the year before.

It sounds like we need better, more organised, farmers than fruit-pickers if it's really the case that there's a shortage.

 

[JC Footy Genius]

Hard graft seems to come somehow easier to our EU and non-EU imports than to UK homegrown chavs. Maybe, due to UK education cuts, it's a learning process?

Hard graft probably seems easier if you can earn three, four, five times the amount you could get for doing the same/similar job in your own country.

Polish minimum wage £2.40.

Romanian minimum wage £1.61

If there was an EU country that had a minimum wage of £20+ I expect many of our unemployed (chavs?) would be straight on the ferry ..

 

[narly101]

Ideal work for students,trouble Is they're to lazy and precious to get up at dawns crack and go to bed at sun down,want everything given to them on a plate before joining the work force in their mid twenties,useless bunch of no good *****.

Someone's tired

 

[scamander]

The Day the Immigrants Left was a documentary from 2010 which gives some insight (at the time) to this question. 12 locals on the dole were given jobs which the Eastern European workers in Wisbech were doing.

I think it's available on Youtube.

 

[looney]

We have one a half million people unemployed and none of them can pull potatoes or cabbages out of the ground?

I have little sympathy for labour shortages while there are millions drawing dole money, about a decade ago and between jobs thought I'd do some summer fruit picking, couldn't find a job anywhere, they all recruit direct overseas or locally by word of mouth.

So can any remainers post a link to an advert for fruit pickers? Take as long as you like.

 

[cheshunt seagull]

Hard graft seems to come somehow easier to our EU and non-EU imports than to UK homegrown chavs. Maybe, due to UK education cuts, it's a learning process?

There does seem to be a sense of entitlement here, and a failure to connect offering some value to someone to actually being paid seems widespread. I think that even if very well paid manual work was available in another European country the bulk of people here would never consider moving and would rather stay put and blame someone else for a lack of opportunities. I would exclude many British people from ethnic minorities from this generalisation as their motivation levels do see much higher.

 

[daveinprague]

I have little sympathy for labour shortages while there are millions drawing dole money, about a decade ago and between jobs thought I'd do some summer fruit picking, couldn't find a job anywhere, they all recruit direct overseas or locally by word of mouth.

So can any remainers post a link to an advert for fruit pickers? Take as long as you like.

https://www.totaljobs.com/jobs/fruit-picker/in-south-east

 

[Two Professors]

https://www.totaljobs.com/jobs/fruit-picker/in-south-east

Nice try,but I think you will find they are warehouse and logistics jobs.A cherry-picker,for example,is not literally someone who picks cherries off a tree.

 

[vegster]

Didn't Mao Tse-tung have a scheme where city dwellers were directed to the countryside to act as agricultural labourers?

Pol Pot had a similar idea.