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

Lowland1

Member
Mixed Farmer
£10/hour for the hours that they want to work. They have consistently earned more than I have this year.
I’m 2 miles away from the local Amazon warehouse which is currently offering a £3000 sign up bonus, yet our small crew keep coming back.
Our situation is obviously different but we look at a harvesting cost of 12% of the farmgate price and a total labour cost of about 18% of total turnover. Once these go up you are looking for a price increase for your produce which usually isn’t forthcoming and i’d say this is the same in UK. What’s happening at present is the growers are priming the customers for a price increase.i hope they get it
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
View attachment 992993
The actual advert says there is a potential to earn £ 30 at no point in the article does it say how much you need to pick nor how it would be measured as you would be working in a gang with a rig so you’d have to hope everyone worked as hard as you did.
I see it says "earn up to 30 an hour". Why a cap at 30? I'd have thought if lots of people could do 30 then some would be able to do more.
 

Lincoln75

Member
We pay that and more for picking fruit, veg would be no different, some employers are arseholes and not worth working for, employees the same, some are not worth employing, constantly wingeing and upsetting the whole team, if British workers are not prepared to put the effort in and do the job then migrant workers will take their place, it has very little to do with poor conditions more like a poor work ethic.
You pay over £30.00 pH for fruit picking? honestly? so some are grossing over £7500.00 pm , ? I'm afraid I think you are making that up.
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
Farmers need to look at themselves a bit on this.
Who lives in the farm cottages or houses nearby?
Commuters have taken all the country houses, their children if they have any wont pick veg
The country folk who used to live there would have worked at picking and so would their kids.
Now they are stuck in a council estate miles away
 

Lincoln75

Member
Farmers need to look at themselves a bit on this.
Who lives in the farm cottages or houses nearby?
Commuters have taken all the country houses, their children if they have any wont pick veg
The country folk who used to live there would have worked at picking and so would their kids.
Now they are stuck in a council estate miles away
Nail on head , they need to sort things out themselves instead of whinging about the government and blaming others for all their failings, thinking you can farm the same as you did 10 or 20 years ago is fantasy.
 

Muddyroads

Member
NFFN Member
Location
Exeter, Devon
Nail on head , they need to sort things out themselves instead of whinging about the government and blaming others for all their failings, thinking you can farm the same as you did 10 or 20 years ago is fantasy.
Says the man who has very conveniently passed the buck by not employing anyone and not actively farming. Do you scrutinise the employment practices of those who you contract everything out to?
 

Lincoln75

Member
Says the man who has very conveniently passed the buck by not employing anyone and not actively farming. Do you scrutinise the employment practices of those who you contract everything out to?
Don't have to as they are generally one man bands themselves. , I have employed 18-20 is the past but never found it beneficial as it just created more work and headaches for me with no more income , turnover is vanity profit is sanity , as for farming yes I`ve done that as well and got out many many years ago apart from recently doing a season as a manager for a grower.
 

stewart

Member
Horticulture
Location
Bay of Plenty NZ
You pay over £30.00 pH for fruit picking? honestly? so some are grossing over £7500.00 pm , ? I'm afraid I think you are making that up.
We don’t pick every day and very few days would you get 8 hours picking in, so no they don’t gross 7,500 GBP per month, due to the intermittent nature of picking rates are higher than the standard labour rate $30 (15 GBP ).
Not all pickers would earn the higher rates, you have to be good to get that and have a high work ethic, the higher earners tend to be Indian or Asian, with a few South American and Vaneatuen pickers up there with them, mostly migrants, the woke Brits wouldn’t have a chance of earning the same amount.
 

Lincoln75

Member
We don’t pick every day and very few days would you get 8 hours picking in, so no they don’t gross 7,500 GBP per month, due to the intermittent nature of picking rates are higher than the standard labour rate $30 (15 GBP ).
Not all pickers would earn the higher rates, you have to be good to get that and have a high work ethic, the higher earners tend to be Indian or Asian, with a few South American and Vaneatuen pickers up there with them, mostly migrants, the woke Brits wouldn’t have a chance of earning the same amount.
I didnt know you were overseas ,your rates of pay dont have much relevance to UK pay rates.
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
The good picking gangs can earn that, average would be lower. It would also depend on length of working day, rarely get an 8 hour day picking.
As I've said before, spot rates mean nothing, the only thing that really matters is average weekly pay for the number of weeks they are required to commit to, minus accommodation and travel costs.
That's why locals don't do it, its not always because they are lazy, its because the numbers don't add up.
 

Lincoln75

Member
As I've said before, spot rates mean nothing, the only thing that really matters is average weekly pay for the number of weeks they are required to commit to, minus accommodation and travel costs.
That's why locals don't do it, its not always because they are lazy, its because the numbers don't add up.
Same here in the UK, growers spout BS.
 

stewart

Member
Horticulture
Location
Bay of Plenty NZ
As I've said before, spot rates mean nothing, the only thing that really matters is average weekly pay for the number of weeks they are required to commit to, minus accommodation and travel costs.
That's why locals don't do it, its not always because they are lazy, its because the numbers don't add up.
We have work all year round, picking, pruning, thinning etc etc, the majority of this is carried out by migrant workers, their work ethic is quite different. We generally work an 8 hour day where possible, I once had a Thia gang ask if they could work longer hours, at the end of the week they brought me a plate of home made spring rolls as a thank you gesture for allowing them to work a 60 hour week, I could not see a European team doing the same thing. This is of course a generalisation and there are some very good local workers, we employ a few of them, we do look after them and pay them well. The old adage of pay peanuts get moneys still holds true.
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
We have work all year round, picking, pruning, thinning etc etc, the majority of this is carried out by migrant workers, their work ethic is quite different. We generally work an 8 hour day where possible, I once had a Thia gang ask if they could work longer hours, at the end of the week they brought me a plate of home made spring rolls as a thank you gesture for allowing them to work a 60 hour week, I could not see a European team doing the same thing. This is of course a generalisation and there are some very good local workers, we employ a few of them, we do look after them and pay them well. The old adage of pay peanuts get moneys still holds true.
Migrants have no social life, no relatives to hold parties, no grannys funeral, daughters school play etc etc etc
Hence they only want to work
 

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