Re: Fears come to fruition

He's saying that the UK should boast the productivity of their enteprises. A suggestion might be as in the figure.

Re: Fears come to fruition

He said that higher wages will favour automation which increases productivity and no mention of inevitable job losses

Re: Fears come to fruition

Excuse my ignorance. In the netherlands, if you lose your job (i.e. you're not sacked) you are entitled to 80% of your wages. Depending on how long you held the job the period of "waiting-money" can be up to years. (After 2 years it is 70%, three later 60%, and 3 years after that 60%).You don't have such a safety net construction?

Re: Fears come to fruition

Less immigration needed for a start

Keep up ...

Re: Fears come to fruition

I’m way ahead of you... no less immigration as this thread is about seasonal farm labour and they go home or onto other parts of Europe at the end of the season

Automation would end the need for seasonal labour but may also result in job losses for the permanent farm workers

A consequential loss is the boost to local economies the seasonal workers bring as machines don’t spend money in local shops and businesses

Re: Fears come to fruition

You seem to forget that those seasonal jobs are there because farmers recruited cheap foreign labour in the first place

Unfortunately in areas like Boston they never went home and stayed there, hence the whopping majority for leave in those areas.

These people sent money back to Poland and other places they never spent a button in the UK economy bit still benefited from health education and housing etc That's why they left in the end not because of brexit but because of the crappy exchange rates making it uneconomical to send the money home anymore.

Seasonal work like picking fruit is physically hard and gruelling. Immigrant workers doibt because we don't want to ... that's why farmers have this problem.

Farmers either need to
1. Pay seasonal workers from abroad a lot more money to make uk for the devalued pound (and keep the risk of future fluctuations and low productivity,)
2. Automate and no longer employ seasonal workers

What do you think the most viable and cost effective solution is ?????

Re: Fears come to fruition

It seems not as much brexit related as UK related. You paid so much for polish subsidies, that their economy needs their labour. Damn! And now we will need to import vietnameze.
https://www.ad.nl/ad-werkt/vietnamez...nten~a660d22c/

I translated part of it.

At Wim de Heus in Zoelen, a permanent group of around 20 Polish employees have been picking apples for years. And also for large projects, such as the planting of new trees, a few works often come. ,, If one stops, they will arrange replacement themselves. Ideal, because they know exactly what kind of people we are looking for, "says the fruit entrepreneur.

In recent years there have been more and more substitutes. Until now, it is still possible to find new Poles. ,, But it's getting harder. I'm worried about that. I also hear colleagues about that. "

Fewer incentives

Now that the economy in Eastern Europe is growing strongly and unemployment is low there, those workers are desperately needed in their own country. They more often receive a permanent contract with higher salaries than a few years ago. There are fewer and fewer incentives for Poland, Romanians and Bulgarians to come to the Netherlands, says the economic bureau of ABN AMRO in a new report that appeared on Thursday.

Many Eastern Europeans work here in transport, logistics, agriculture, construction and industry. They perform work for which Dutch people are often unable to poke.

If the employees no longer come from Poland, they might come from elsewhere. "
Like from the Far East. "In Germany and Belgium, Asians are taking over all the work of Eastern Europeans," says Ronald Hilberink of Flexfactory employment agency in Doetinchem, which employs around 1,700 non-Dutch people at companies in the Achterhoek every day. "Those countries have special arrangements for these people."
///
Van Doorn also foresees problems. ,, The cultural differences are greater than with Poland. Moreover, they cannot return to Asia for a moment, if they have problems or if the work ends here. We as a society must prepare well for this. "

Chinese cooks

The problem with the work permits will solve itself, if nobody picks the strawberries or wants to stand on the scaffolding, expects Ronald Hilberink of Flexfactory.

,, Then there will be a special arrangement for workers from outside the EU. Like with the Chinese restaurants. "" Recently they no longer have to indicate per vacancy that they cannot find anyone in the Netherlands if they have a cook from China work here. ,, We cannot live in the Netherlands without migrant workers. It's that simple.''

Re: Fears come to fruition

You seem to think we have a choice in those subsidies ? We don't.

and .... the UK need migrant workers, but those should come here on the terms of our country and the needs of our country, rather than the uncontrolled chaos we have seen in the past, and in places like Germany and Sweden.

Re: Fears come to fruition

The most viable and cost effective solution ultimately will depend on the size of the farm. Large operations will be able to benefit from mechanisation if it is suitable/available. Smaller concerns might find the investment unsustainable

However at present there is no alternative to manual labour, and with some crops there never will be

Re: Fears come to fruition

Ha ha...

You just ignored everything I wrote .... the alternative to manual labour is automation. Don't run a business whatever you do

Automation is scalable and its also very available, from purchasing machinery outright, hiring it or sub contracting services to service providers.