"Furloughed workers to be encouraged to take fruit picking jobs to help UK harvest" - Sky News

[GeorgeC1]

Snippet from the article
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Some of the millions of British workers furloughed during the coronavirus lockdown will be encouraged to take a second job picking fruit and vegetables, the government has said.

Giving the daily COVID-19 briefing, Environment Secretary George Eustice said only a third of the migrant workers who normally picked fruit and vegetables were currently in the country.


Although the international food chain was continuing to "work well", Mr Eustice said he expected there would be a need to recruit staff in the UK to harvest crops in the coming weeks.

Coronavirus: Furloughed workers to be encouraged to take fruit picking jobs to help UK harvest

Some of the millions of British workers furloughed during the coronavirus lockdown will be encouraged to take a second job picking fruit and vegetables, the government has said.

news.sky.com

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Judging by various reports that's not really working, the only way I see it working in huge numbers is if the Government gets involved in either way;

They mandate what hours the jobs that are offered have, keep the Furlough and the pay ontop of that, govt imposed work conditions etc.. to encourage people to voluntarily do it

or

(I don't support this method as it'll unleash pandoras box) - Have Furlough treated like UC and have it so that you can only get the furlough payments if you work at a fruit farm, I see a lot of Baby Boomers on Facebook spout this but imagine forcing 50 year old accountants and single mothers onto farms miles away from where they live, it'll be a PR disaster and make Farmers look like Slave drivers.

 

[Devil's advocate]

As a producer of veg/potatoes & retailer of fruit/veg.

With my veg grower hat on, I find it a bit galling that the larger growers are continully subsidised with cheap labour, which under mines me because I either do it myself or use local labour & pay 150% of what the larger growers pay.

As a retailer I see the need to get people out working.

But with both hats on, I think the growers should have to pay at least min wage.

The fact is veg prices only need rise a small amount to pay a decent wage to the harvesting crews. In the early 80's veg harvesting was well paid, thats why I went into the business.

 

[Kidds]

I think the growers should have to pay at least min wage.

They do have to, and I believe it is "living wage" now.
The law says you must do the above, immigrant labour is not cheap labour.
There are certainly growers out there that twist the system by charging for poor and/or cramped accomodation and various other "scams".

 

[Devil's advocate]

They do have to, and I believe it is "living wage" now.
The law says you must do the above, immigrant labour is not cheap labour.
There are certainly growers out there that twist the system by charging for poor and/or cramped accomodation and various other "scams".

Yes Kidds. I know. But at least one grower mentioned if the workers were too slow they might be happy to work for less than min wage.

Immigrant labour beats uk for many reasons. But an important one is that exchange rates make that wage an extremely good wage. Thus attracting better workers.

I'm not anti foreign labour. providing rates are comparable to uk rates in £'s per hour. I've no problem that when they go home their spending power is greater.