11-04-2019, 09:41 AM
42
Re: The fruit farmer
Originally Posted by Banchory
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Are you saying these people won’t travel?
1. Location - people from abroad need transport to and from where they are living to the rural areas. Most farmers put this on for free - others do not so need to rely on buses/cabs which eats into their income.
2. Wages - farmers pay decent wages for fruit picking. There is lots of overtime available during the harvest so those willing to earn more, usually can, daylight permitting. A lot of farms already pay above minimum wage to attract workers and these can earn £300-350 per week (tax free).
3. Exchange rates - when the pound is strong then foreign workers get more for their money when sending it home. When the pound is weak, they get less. The pound has been devalued since 2008 - in 2017 we saw the numbers of foreign farm workers drop the lowest - even though we are still in the EU and still have open borders.
4. Many seasonal workers do not go back to their country of origin agfter the harvests, they stay here so the number of immigrants each year may look like they are falling but in reality, the total number of foreign workers remains the same. Look at Boston/Lincoln and their vote for leave - because so many immigrants do not go home after working on the farms and remain in the area.
5. Harvests are usually around September to November which is in term time for students so we do not see many UK workers picking fruit.
6. We have full employment so workers in the UK have more choice - do manual work picking fruit or work in retail, catering etc for the same money.
You can't keep blaming Brexit when :
1. We haven't left yet
2. There are many reasons why foreign workers choose to come here (or not)
3. Strawberry (for example) production in the UK has increased and picking is being done more efficiently by machinery so there is less need for foreign workers
In fact, we should increase the opportunities for foreign workers working in the UK by treating everyone the same instead of favouring workers from the EU under the free movement rules.
Your arguments don't stack up.
The guy in the Channel 4 program should invest in more efficient ways of picking his fruit instead of relying on cheap foreign labour and paying them naff all.
11-04-2019, 09:51 AM
43
Re: The fruit farmer
HiA couple of things.
Bread, EU workers are more likely to go home after finishing than Non EU Workers, just a fact of life.
EU Immigration is less dangerous and problematical for us.
We need huge changes to our Benefits System to get unemployed to do seasonal work, we punish them for it instead of rewarding them.
When I was working 4 out of every 5 we picked up working illegally were Non EU Overstayers.
They did not pay tax or NI.
11-04-2019, 10:22 AM
44
Re: The fruit farmer
Originally Posted by swimfeeders
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HiA couple of things.
Bread, EU workers are more likely to go home after finishing than Non EU Workers, just a fact of life.
EU Immigration is less dangerous and problematical for us.
We need huge changes to our Benefits System to get unemployed to do seasonal work, we punish them for it instead of rewarding them.
When I was working 4 out of every 5 we picked up working illegally were Non EU Overstayers.
They did not pay tax or NI.
I disagree about EU immigration being more problematic for us. I think any uncontrolled immigration is bad for us no matter where it is from.
Unemployed people would find farm labouring more problematic than any other work as a lot if unemployed people are registered disabled and are unable to do manual work.
11-04-2019, 01:01 PM
45
Re: The fruit farmer
Originally Posted by swimfeeders
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HiA couple of things.
Bread, EU workers are more likely to go home after finishing than Non EU Workers, just a fact of life.
EU Immigration is less dangerous and problematical for us.
We need huge changes to our Benefits System to get unemployed to do seasonal work, we punish them for it instead of rewarding them.
When I was working 4 out of every 5 we picked up working illegally were Non EU Overstayers.
They did not pay tax or NI.
same direction, (by we l mean us me and you )
It seeme to me, from your posts, that most of what you
say could be rectified by stronger and fairer enforcement of
existing rules,
That way we get a clearer definition of who is really sick
and who isnt,
Then we get an idea about how many workers are really
available for work
We allready know how many jobs are available, so the
difference equals how many or how few extra wokers
are required.
Everything follows from there.
In short, strict rules, strong enforcement, fairness and empathy
where required!
Why dont we do this at present?
Best Regards, Donkeyman.
11-04-2019, 01:07 PM
46
Re: The fruit farmer
Originally Posted by Ray Cathode
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Not really a great advert for the EU Solly, perhaps you should tell the UK 16-24s how great their future would be in the EU.
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