yes, £11 an hour … a program on telly yesterday about Romanian immigrants,
Fruit pickers near Boston Lincs earning a sight more than what I earn as a professional driver…
And I bet they don’t have to put up with all the crap that we have to.
And I am not having a pop at immigrants, that was the rate paid to all the pickers on the fruit farm, regardless of nationality…
Trukkertone:
yes, £11 an hour … a program on telly yesterday about Romanian immigrants,
Fruit pickers near Boston Lincs earning a sight more than what I earn as a professional driver…
And I bet they don’t have to put up with all the crap that we have to.
And I am not having a pop at immigrants, that was the rate paid to all the pickers on the fruit farm, regardless of nationality…
If you are looking for a new job ask him if he wants a homegrown truck driver to deliver his Fruits , you may get a rate rise !
Think you will find that it was up to. As they were on piece rate, the more they picked the more they could earn.
Fruit picking is seasonal, and usually you get paid by the weight of what you pick.
So, when you’re in the height of season, there’s plenty to pick, and plenty to get paid for.
Naturally, it works the other way too.
I saw a program about ‘the immigrants’ several years back, and aside from why they were here (no one here would do the job), it said one of them got paid £500 for one days work (picking asparagus).
Obviously some people here wouldn’t do it, but its a job, and its a start of showing to future employers you can and will work.
When you are working hard at peak season, you can earn a quid or two picking.But you have to live for the rest of the year, so you have to see these earnings in that context.
Gipsies used to do picking, and cockneys from London used to get special trains laid on for them to go hop-picking in Kent.Neither of these groups would contemplate doing that kind of work now.
At best it’s hard work, outside in all weathers. No sick pay, no holidays. And when working conditions are bad, you work even harder and earn less money. In East Anglia the job was ruined by gangmasters: their antics made driver agencies look like charities.
Before the influx of folk from points East I recall seeing a farmer from Cornwall who was struggling to get anyone to work picking new spuds and daffs…he had to plough the flowers back in. So, I suspect, if the ‘Easties’ didn’t do it, no one would, and there would be very little home-grown fresh produce on sale.
The ‘seasonal labour’ that I have spoken to doing this job are well-educated, hard-working young people…mostly doing degrees in agriculture, and many of them actually putting money away as a first step to buying their own farms. I doubt that the average Brit ‘unemployable’ could do what they do: in fact I seem to recall a TV prog of a few years ago where a number of unemployed who were voiciferous about ‘foreigners’ ‘taking their jobs’ were given an opportunity to wok in the fields and packinghouses, half of them didn’t turn up, one who did was too hungover to work and the rest had packed it in by lunchtime complaining that they had only agreed to it because they wanted to be on TV: they didn’t realise they would have to actually do the work.
Until such time as we get our house in order, we are going to have to continue to welcome hard-working and intelligent people to these shores to do the work that our own people won’t.
We’ve now got two generations who think that a sure sign of stupidity is having a job.
I say to you GasGas…Hear Hear!!! Very well said!!
Daz1970:
I say to you GasGas…Hear Hear!!! Very well said!!
Me too 100%.
Daz1970:
I say to you GasGas…Hear Hear!!! Very well said!!
+1
Thank you.
My brother is a farm contractor and inevitably has to hire workers from South Africa, NZ and OZ, because the local Brits can’t cope with either the work or the hours.
He did have one partial success many years ago. Took on a local lad with no qualifications, but who showed aptitude for the job. My bro arranged for him to go to NZ in the winter to gain more experience, and wrote him a glowing reference which persuaded a college to consider him for a course in agricultural engineering.
The lad’s Dad said no, because it wasn’t ‘proper work’. So the lad got a job in a factory, which closed, and he’s now unemployed.
When I left college, with my newly-minted degree, my first job was taking down fence posts and rolling up ■■■■-covered barbed wire in the rain (no gloves provided). It wasn’t nice work, but it was better than the dole.
Hi all.In many types of work there are '‘seasonal variations’'which can be taken advantage of.up here in the North as the summer is so short there are lots of opportunities to make a lot of Money in a short time.I was working full time driving in a mine,but the last couple of years i have worked only summer months and odd jobs in the Winter.This is for two reasons.
1 I don’t want to work full time as i value my ‘‘quality of life’’
2 I like Winter sport so have more opportunity up here for skiing,snowscooter,ice fishing etc.as we have about 6-7 months of Winter.
I now drive a truck transporting ‘‘road building materials’’.Due to the short summers we get dispensation to drive ‘‘tacho free’’ in areas which are being repaired with mining trucks which also have dispensations to carry 40t loads to make the work go quicker. we earn £15-£20 per hour netto,so i can make enough in the summer months to last all year.Plus the fact that it is 24hrs Daylight means a lot of work can be done in a few months so there is always work to be done.Mike
Nothing wrong with any of that Mike.
I often think that we need 2 things to get the country back to work.
-
Have generous unemployment benefits, for those who have worked, but taper them off after 6 months or so.
-
Close down weekday daytime TV.
I suspect quite a few people would start to find their way back into work if this happened.
Hit the nail on the head there GasGas! I despair of our nations predicament!
Forgive me but i must add to my previous post that working part time or seasonal is a personal choice.Many people work extra in the summer and go back to ‘‘normal’’ hours the rest of the year.Before anyone comments about ‘‘abuses of social systems’’ by any working Groups the Money i make allows me to live a comfortable life here and i make NO claims of any sort upon the social system.If i choose not to work,or to work part time then it is my own responsibility not the social services.Mike
Trukkertone:
yes, £11 an hour … a program on telly yesterday about Romanian immigrants,
Fruit pickers near Boston Lincs earning a sight more than what I earn as a professional driver…
And I bet they don’t have to put up with all the crap that we have to.
And I am not having a pop at immigrants, that was the rate paid to all the pickers on the fruit farm, regardless of nationality…
I take it that as they’re on “a sight more than what [you] earn as a professional driver” then we can expect to see you in the fields fruit picking then, right? 
Wait… Or was it just the weekly TN thread moaning about immigrants?
Trukkertone:
yes, £11 an hour … a program on telly yesterday about Romanian immigrants,
Fruit pickers near Boston Lincs earning a sight more than what I earn as a professional driver…
And I bet they don’t have to put up with all the crap that we have to.
And I am not having a pop at immigrants, that was the rate paid to all the pickers on the fruit farm, regardless of nationality…
Yep; I saw, heard and thought the same.
Another thing - they were all young and fit. I don’t mean phoooaaar fit, I mean it looked like back-breaking work, bent over all the time. If I did that you’d have to carry me home in chair.
Good luck to them.
Trukkertone:
yes, £11 an hour … a program on telly yesterday about Romanian immigrants,
Fruit pickers near Boston Lincs earning a sight more than what I earn as a professional driver…
And I bet they don’t have to put up with all the crap that we have to.
And I am not having a pop at immigrants, that was the rate paid to all the pickers on the fruit farm, regardless of nationality…
If you believe that then you’re a fool, fruit/veg pickers are on minimum wage with accommodation (a knackered old caravan) I know as I collect from the farms on a daily basis and they are not on £11 ph the jobs are advertised in the local rag via agency, oh and you have to work outside in all temperatures and weather conditions.
from personal experience on piece rate,if you seem to be earning a good crack some bod will turn up with with a stopwatch and pen and paper to get the times down,bastid’s.
11 pound is low since April I have been driving for a garden centre that grows fruit the pickers there get the minimum wage plus piece work, the best pickers can earn £16 per hour.
NewLad:
Trukkertone:
yes, £11 an hour … a program on telly yesterday about Romanian immigrants,
Fruit pickers near Boston Lincs earning a sight more than what I earn as a professional driver…
And I bet they don’t have to put up with all the crap that we have to.
And I am not having a pop at immigrants, that was the rate paid to all the pickers on the fruit farm, regardless of nationality…If you believe that then you’re a fool, fruit/veg pickers are on minimum wage with accommodation (a knackered old caravan) I know as I collect from the farms on a daily basis and they are not on £11 ph the jobs are advertised in the local rag via agency, oh and you have to work outside in all temperatures and weather conditions.
it was on telly, so it must be true.
Trukkertone:
yes, £11 an hour … a program on telly yesterday about Romanian immigrants,
Fruit pickers near Boston Lincs earning a sight more than what I earn as a professional driver…
And I bet they don’t have to put up with all the crap that we have to.
And I am not having a pop at immigrants, that was the rate paid to all the pickers on the fruit farm, regardless of nationality…
Farm pay would be a lot better than lorry drivers take home, ive offered an Irish lad £15hr flat rate to come back for harvest for a month or two.