“Thousands apply for fruit and veg picker jobs..”

DoctorMick said:
You realise that makes no sense right?

I’d like to see unemployed get priority as well but it looks like there are going to be far more jobs than applicants. It’s going to be critical that fruit and veg isn’t left to rot in fields.
Click to expand...

I'm fine with people working the jobs, I just don't think they should get money for nothing in addition to that. The opportunity to get out and about, and/or community spirit should be enough of an incentive.
 


Edinburgh Black Cat said:
I'm fine with people working the jobs, I just don't think they should get money for nothing in addition to that. The opportunity to get out and about, and/or community spirit should be enough of an incentive.
Click to expand...
I can understand your view entirely, it doesn’t bother me but I can see why others think it’s wrong. Sadly, community spirit won’t be enough to fill the jobs.
 
Mickdundee said:
What if you’re getting 80% of your wage through the furlough scheme, and the second job on minimum wage doesn’t even make up the 20%? Someone on £30k a year who takes on 20 hours a week mw fruit picking for example.
Click to expand...
It would. In fact it would be more than 20%
 
Last edited:
joemcdokes said:
They can't be British people, the British don't want to do those types of jobs.
Click to expand...

The highest rated comment on that BBC link below makes interesting reading.


"Of course people want these jobs! Always have done. They used to be advertised in the local paper or at the farm gate etc.
For the past 3 decades or so these jobs have just not been available. For eg friend's son went round pretty much every farm in Midlands/East begging for a job. Nothing. Was told he had to apply to various gangmaster types - dodgy men who didn't employ English folk"
 
42 said:
The highest rated comment on that BBC link below makes interesting reading.


"Of course people want these jobs! Always have done. They used to be advertised in the local paper or at the farm gate etc.
For the past 3 decades or so these jobs have just not been available. For eg friend's son went round pretty much every farm in Midlands/East begging for a job. Nothing. Was told he had to apply to various gangmaster types - dodgy men who didn't employ English folk"
Click to expand...
happens all over in construction, gardening, even food shops, warehouses etc. Its amazing what the news decides to report and what angle they use. Its almost as if there is a parallel world of reality and what the press show. In the last 15 years you've had men sat on the hard shoulder on a morning at retail parks across London, outside Ikea etc,waiting to pick up some cash in hand work, all obviously organised by some third party. Minibuses showing up at a collection point. There was some scandal on the news the other year about people living 15 to a house and landlords cashing in, in east London. Its been going on for years and years, and you would only need to pay the briefest attention to it to notice - i knew it just by going to do a house viewing.

all of these things will be concealed of course unless the sh*t hits the fan
 
Edinburgh Black Cat said:
Point still stands. If people can get the money by working another job in the interim then they don't need tax payers money and therefore shouldn't get it (at least not all of it).
Click to expand...
The money isn't for the employee, its for the employer to retain its staff so that they can operate once the crisis is over.
42 said:
The highest rated comment on that BBC link below makes interesting reading.


"Of course people want these jobs! Always have done. They used to be advertised in the local paper or at the farm gate etc.
For the past 3 decades or so these jobs have just not been available. For eg friend's son went round pretty much every farm in Midlands/East begging for a job. Nothing. Was told he had to apply to various gangmaster types - dodgy men who didn't employ English folk"
Click to expand...
The truth starts to come out. And its obvious really, there was always a rabbit away when you read that "people just don't want to do these jobs".

Bollocks, you just don't want to pay at least minimum wage with standard benefits. Not when you can hire illegals for pennies and everyone turns a blind eye.
 
Last edited:
PTR said:
The money isn't for the employee, its for the employer to retain its staff so that they can operate once the crisis is over.
Click to expand...

It's one and the same. The employer is given it to give to the employee. The employer can't just take the money and not pass it on.

I accept the practicalities mean it needs to be quite simply. I just think it is less than ideal that on one hand people are bemoaning the lack of funding for NHS et al while you could theoretically pick up £2k per month of tax payers money while working a temporary job that covers your normal income.
 
Qwerty said:
You're correct, fruit pickers can't be furloughed if fruit needs picked. I was saying furloughed workers in other industries shouldn't be able to receive up to £1900 a month of tax payers money and then do another job. Others posters were suggesting it would be OK.
Click to expand...
That's more than minimum wage for a full time worker.
 
Wood Green Mackem said:
happens all over in construction, gardening, even food shops, warehouses etc. Its amazing what the news decides to report and what angle they use. Its almost as if there is a parallel world of reality and what the press show. In the last 15 years you've had men sat on the hard shoulder on a morning at retail parks across London, outside Ikea etc,waiting to pick up some cash in hand work, all obviously organised by some third party. Minibuses showing up at a collection point. There was some scandal on the news the other year about people living 15 to a house and landlords cashing in, in east London. Its been going on for years and years, and you would only need to pay the briefest attention to it to notice - i knew it just by going to do a house viewing.

all of these things will be concealed of course unless the sh*t hits the fan
Click to expand...

I think a lot of it is skewed by what's happening in London & how stupidly expensive housing is.
The whole "who's going to do x, y&z jobs when we leave the EU" was mainly a london problem. As people in low paid jobs can't afford to live there so the only way is to bus in Eastern Europeans & pack them in 4 to a room in illegal HMO's.
 
Edinburgh Black Cat said:
I'm fine with people working the jobs, I just don't think they should get money for nothing in addition to that. The opportunity to get out and about, and/or community spirit should be enough of an incentive.
Click to expand...
Maybe long term but right now during this shit who cares, as long as jobs are getting done and people aren't being made homeless then we will sort of the other shit out after we have established if the human race has any future.
 
Brings me back to my childhood days.
We used to live in a village surrounded by orchards. At the end of the apple picking season, around September a mate and myself used to earn some money by picking up the windfall apples or any that had been left in the trees. Used for making cider.
Used to get around 11p a box and after a hard days graft the farmer would come out and count the boxes and pay us. We split the money and off we went.

As soon as he left us at the start we would pick a few a then realised is was easier taking the ones already picked on the other side of the orchards and moving them on our cart we had hidden. Village scratters.
Living a live scene of of This Country.

Happy Childhood memories that live with you forever. My kids don’t do anything like that now and I genuinely feel for them as their childhood seems boring in comparison.
 
ShieldsBlackCat2015 said:
Assuming you refer to people in the "picking and packing" industry, given what they earn, which can be counted in pence rather than pounds, what is so wrong with those type of people earning a more money than they normally would given that it is still nowhere close to an income that they can live on. Presumably even adding the furlough payments (if that is what it is called) to the wage of two companies, what they get in wages as picker or packer is so low that what they get in total still probably won't be enough to live on.

Why does society in general think these pickers and packers who work hard on farms to put food on the table of people who are not even grateful or thankful for the hard work they did or even know how it got there, don't deserve to have any kind of a decent income? Is the prospect that these people may actually earn a decent amount of money that much of a threat to people who earn far more for a far easier job?
Click to expand...

Not being funny but I won't be grateful to someone doing a paid job if they have the choice to do it.
 
Edinburgh Black Cat said:
Point still stands. If people can get the money by working another job in the interim then they don't need tax payers money and therefore shouldn't get it (at least not all of it).
Click to expand...

That's what puzzles me.

Some people are being furloughed and getting 80% of their salary coming in and taking on a second job, so they could have more money coming in.

Others are being refused furlough and cannot work because they are shielding and all they can claim is either £94 SSP/UC or £73 ESA, so they're facing financial worries but can't work to make ends meet.

It's a really unfair system and penalises the people who have been told to stay home because they are of high risk of serious illness/death so the hospital beds can be used for people more likely to survive it.
 
Swindon On Tour said:
Brings me back to my childhood days.
We used to live in a village surrounded by orchards. At the end of the apple picking season, around September a mate and myself used to earn some money by picking up the windfall apples or any that had been left in the trees. Used for making cider.
Used to get around 11p a box and after a hard days graft the farmer would come out and count the boxes and pay us. We split the money and off we went.

As soon as he left us at the start we would pick a few a then realised is was easier taking the ones already picked on the other side of the orchards and moving them on our cart we had hidden. Village scratters.
Living a live scene of of This Country.

Happy Childhood memories that live with you forever. My kids don’t do anything like that now and I genuinely feel for them as their childhood seems boring in comparison.
Click to expand...

i'm 'only' 34 and remember doing some random shit for money when i was younger. worked on the market at xmas selling wreaths, security on building sites, paper rounds, digging out a pond, clearing gardens into a skip, telemarketing, warehouse packaging work, dishwashing in a restaurant, flower delivering, glass collecting... all before i was 18 and just about all of it cash in hand and all of it found by me and me mates just been cheeky and asking for work off people. i thought it was crap at the time but looking back it was the best days of your life man. proper scruffy we were
 
tunstallhill said:
i'm 'only' 34 and remember doing some random shit for money when i was younger. worked on the market at xmas selling wreaths, security on building sites, paper rounds, digging out a pond, clearing gardens into a skip, telemarketing, warehouse packaging work, dishwashing in a restaurant, flower delivering, glass collecting... all before i was 18 and just about all of it cash in hand and all of it found by me and me mates just been cheeky and asking for work off people. i thought it was crap at the time but looking back it was the best days of your life man. proper scruffy we were
Click to expand...

Top Man you are Mate.
I had a paper round and the Christmas tips were wonderful.
 

Back
Top