Why won’t Brits pick vegetables for £30 an hour?

Lincoln75

Member
The East Europeans aren't coming back. I reckon we are going to see an influx of workers from Africa. We have a Zimbabwean chap helps us out, whenever we have lambs or a bullock killed he goes to the abattoir to collect the offal as none of our white box customers want it. He could fill a plane tomorrow to come and work in our abattoirs.
That would be a really bad idea , 99% would either disappear at the end of the picking or claim political asylum , in addition the time it would take for them to acclimatise to a cold wet British winter would be weeks ( if they ever did ) , we have enough problems with cultural differences in the UK without importing more.
 

Lowland1

Member
Mixed Farmer
That would be a really bad idea , 99% would either disappear at the end of the picking or claim political asylum , in addition the time it would take for them to acclimatise to a cold wet British winter would be weeks ( if they ever did ) , we have enough problems with cultural differences in the UK without importing more.
Bit late for that
 

Lowland1

Member
Mixed Farmer
That good enough for you? My father in law was a surgeon and would regularly lose trained nurses to the UK and the USA. Who can blame them as their wages are very low and often they don’t get paid. As for disappearing into the UK I doubt it a nurses salary in the UK is pretty rubbish but three years returned to Kenya sets you up for life. As for why aren’t you reading about in the UK I don’t know but I’d think it’s pretty frightening for an aging population to know they are running out of nurses and the doctors who are coming in won’t be able to tell you what’s wrong with you unless you learn Urdu.
 

Lincoln75

Member
That good enough for you? My father in law was a surgeon and would regularly lose trained nurses to the UK and the USA. Who can blame them as their wages are very low and often they don’t get paid. As for disappearing into the UK I doubt it a nurses salary in the UK is pretty rubbish but three years returned to Kenya sets you up for life. As for why aren’t you reading about in the UK I don’t know but I’d think it’s pretty frightening for an aging population to know they are running out of nurses and the doctors who are coming in won’t be able to tell you what’s wrong with you unless you learn Urdu.
No mention of 20,000 there and I doubt they want to pick veg which is what we are discussing , "Why won’t Brits pick vegetables for £30 an hour?" , as for nurses pay , I dont think its too bad compared with other trades , in fact with a few years experience its bloody good pay , 2-3 times that of an agricultural worker .
 

Lowland1

Member
Mixed Farmer
No mention of 20,000 there and I doubt they want to pick veg which is what we are discussing , "Why won’t Brits pick vegetables for £30 an hour?" , as for nurses pay , I dont think its too bad compared with other trades , in fact with a few years experience its bloody good pay , 2-3 times that of an agricultural worker .
I grow 1000 acres of broccoli. I have some very good pickers I can tell you that harvesting broccoli is not an easy job it’s very hard further more it isn’t an unskilled task it’s a very skilled. My workers are very good at it because we are picking 52 weeks of the year in the UK it’s seasonal and possibly by the end of the season someone might be good enough to get to the mythical 30 pounds and hour but then what do you do out of season. I can send 50 people capable of doing this tomorrow and after six months they will come home with more money than they could dream of so they build a house or buy some land or a car or start a business. They aren’t going to be claiming asylum or running away because believe it or not the UK isn’t the promised land. Or alternatively I’ll keep sending the broccoli.
What the UK is seeing is the affect of a declining birth rate and an aging population factors that were temporarily mitigated by being in the EU. You can sort it for a while by cutting benefit and raising wages but there just aren’t enough workers.
 

stewart

Member
Horticulture
Location
Bay of Plenty NZ
I grow 1000 acres of broccoli. I have some very good pickers I can tell you that harvesting broccoli is not an easy job it’s very hard further more it isn’t an unskilled task it’s a very skilled. My workers are very good at it because we are picking 52 weeks of the year in the UK it’s seasonal and possibly by the end of the season someone might be good enough to get to the mythical 30 pounds and hour but then what do you do out of season. I can send 50 people capable of doing this tomorrow and after six months they will come home with more money than they could dream of so they build a house or buy some land or a car or start a business. They aren’t going to be claiming asylum or running away because believe it or not the UK isn’t the promised land. Or alternatively I’ll keep sending the broccoli.
What the UK is seeing is the affect of a declining birth rate and an aging population factors that were temporarily mitigated by being in the EU. You can sort it for a while by cutting benefit and raising wages but there just aren’t enough workers.
We have a government scheme similar to what you suggest, horticulture workers are given working visas, this gives growers access to a pool of labour allowing crops to be picked and packed and vines pruned, the scheme works well. Most of the participants come from the Pacific Islands, at the end of the visa period they return home taking their hard earned funds with them, this puts money into their own local economy. Everyones a winner, growers get the crop picked, the pickers get paid well, money goes into the Pacific Islands, what’s not to like?
 

SteveHants

Member
Livestock Farmer
No mention of 20,000 there and I doubt they want to pick veg which is what we are discussing , "Why won’t Brits pick vegetables for £30 an hour?" , as for nurses pay , I dont think its too bad compared with other trades , in fact with a few years experience its bloody good pay , 2-3 times that of an agricultural worker .
That must be why so many in work nurses are having to visit food banks......

That pay is shite, and far less than you get in ag - you might get that plus house but that's hardly the same.

£21,777 nets you just over £1500/month - which, in London is the average monthly rent (rest of south east average is £1000).
 

Lincoln75

Member
That must be why so many in work nurses are having to visit food banks......

That pay is shite, and far less than you get in ag - you might get that plus house but that's hardly the same.

£21,777 nets you just over £1500/month - which, in London is the average monthly rent (rest of south east average is £1000).
£22k is the starting pay because you are still learning on the job, same as any job you start at the bottom and after few years most are on over £30k , some £40k+ , that isnt shite pay , how many farm workers get that for a 40 hour week ?
 

JeepJeep

Member
Trade
I grow 1000 acres of broccoli. I have some very good pickers I can tell you that harvesting broccoli is not an easy job it’s very hard further more it isn’t an unskilled task it’s a very skilled. My workers are very good at it because we are picking 52 weeks of the year in the UK it’s seasonal and possibly by the end of the season someone might be good enough to get to the mythical 30 pounds and hour but then what do you do out of season. I can send 50 people capable of doing this tomorrow and after six months they will come home with more money than they could dream of so they build a house or buy some land or a car or start a business. They aren’t going to be claiming asylum or running away because believe it or not the UK isn’t the promised land. Or alternatively I’ll keep sending the broccoli.
What the UK is seeing is the affect of a declining birth rate and an aging population factors that were temporarily mitigated by being in the EU. You can sort it for a while by cutting benefit and raising wages but there just aren’t enough workers.

What would those 50 or your men be doing if they were not working for you?... Propped up by the State with not really much of a worry?
 

Lowland1

Member
Mixed Farmer
What would those 50 or your men be doing if they were not working for you?... Propped up by the State with not really much of a worry?
There’s no unemployment benefit and whenever we need extra workers they are easy to find but sometimes they don’t last long.Sitting at home beats working even when you don’t get money and I think it’s something that you’d find in the UK if you removed benefits some people would have to work others would be carried by their family or friends.
 

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