UK Work Force.

[Squaredy]

3 hours ago, ESS said:

Tbh comments about the youth of today

I don't recall this being a thread about youth.  It is about the lack of ethic of hard physical labour in the UK.  Realistically it is the youth who you would expect to want to go for hard manual jobs most, because they are likely to be able to cope with the demands of the job better, but the point is we have had apparently one million extra people claim universal credit in the last month, and yet thousands of farms are in crisis because they cannot get good workers.

 

It is a fair point that something does not add up!

[5 shires]

54 minutes ago, Squaredy said:

I don't recall this being a thread about youth.  It is about the lack of ethic of hard physical labour in the UK.  Realistically it is the youth who you would expect to want to go for hard manual jobs most, because they are likely to be able to cope with the demands of the job better, but the point is we have had apparently one million extra people claim universal credit in the last month, and yet thousands of farms are in crisis because they cannot get good workers.

 

It is a fair point that something does not add up!

In total agreement with as said above,when you get people who would rather sign on then do a days work that to me just about sums up how this country has got...young girls having baby’s before they are old enough and capable of looking after them and the dads just as young and then goverment supply’s the house,money to live on and all sorts of benefits which adds up to more what they could possibly earn doing a full time job so the logic is why work for far less then what you can get for doing sweet FA. The system is the problem not the young people who have been given the choice as years ago there wasn’t,you either Work’d to put food on the table and a roof over your head or you basically got nothing.

But back to my main point,surly there are enough young to middle aged people in this country who could and are very capable of doing a days work with no one cracking a whip for a decent amount of money and it could also open up opportunity’s for the right people.

[scotspine1]

23 minutes ago, 5 shires said:

there are enough young to middle aged people in this country who could and are very capable of doing a days work 

 

They fly these people in because they can. There is one rule for the capitalist elites and another rule for everyone else. They operate above the law. 

 

The people who run these companies are well connected to government, they decide to fly in 100s of 'skilled horticulturalists' from Romania or Bulgaria in the middle of a pandemic and just like that it happens, they get their cheap labour. 

 

The Left in their stupidity then jump in to defend the capitalist's use of migrant workers because the Left in Britain has been betraying the British working class since the 1960s. 

 

British people can pick strawberries, the problem is they want a decent wage for it and the capitalists dont like that, instead they want foreign migrant workers who will work for peanuts. 

 

 

.

[Acerforestry]

I do find some of this mystifying. I have tried a few times to find a reliable youngster to stack / burn chestnut coppice and it's been a bit of a headache - but I can understand that given it's bloody hard, smoky graft for not much money (unless you're school leaving age, in which case it's do able, just). But some of these Eastern European workers can earn substantially more, doing much lighter work if you put the hours in. A classic case being mentioned in the news a couple of years back, migrants picking daffs in Cornwall were earning well over 100 a day, if they were fast. That's hardly appalling money for unskilled work? I struggle to understand the mentality of people who want to contribute nothing to society, and are happy to see agriculture in the UK on it's arse because they can't be bothered to assist. Get out there and do something, if you want benefits

[headgroundsman]

13 hours ago, Squaredy said:

I can’t claim any direct experience of this but let’s be honest if you think back to school and career aspirations when you were growing up, everything is about getting a well paid non physical job.

 

I do not know anyone who does a physically demanding job for eight or ten hours a day and is happy with it.  As a stop gap maybe but nothing else.

 

Some countries out there youngsters are just grateful to be safe and in work, and earning several times what they would in their home country.

 

I think it is just a symptom of a highly developed society like the UK - no one aspires to hard physical labour.

I had the education and aptitude to be accepted as a pilot in the RAF. Unfortunately I failed the officer training course and left the air force. I had been working on a farm since starting as a schoolboy and spent every spare minute there. After a short while I decided I wanted no more education and got a fulltime job on a farm in 1978. I love the physical side of the work and was very fit. it was nothing to handle 1000 bales of hay twice, onto and off the trailers, or 1000 bags of spuds 3 times, onto a trailer, stacked after weighing and then onto a wagon. I never complained about the work being too hard but did sometimes that the money was poor. I stuck with farm work until finding more money and similar life working for myself looking after 25 private gardens. I then landed the job as headgroundsman at a 4 star hotel with their own deerpark. I did ok for myself and can honestly say I enjoyed my work so much it never felt like a chore. I guess I was the exception that proves the rule!

[Squaredy]

1 hour ago, scotspine1 said:

 

They fly these people in because they can. There is one rule for the capitalist elites and another rule for everyone else. They operate above the law. 

 

The people who run these companies are well connected to government, they decide to fly in 100s of 'skilled horticulturalists' from Romania or Bulgaria in the middle of a pandemic and just like that it happens, they get their cheap labour. 

 

The Left in their stupidity then jump in to defend the capitalist's use of migrant workers because the Left in Britain has been betraying the British working class since the 1960s. 

 

British people can pick strawberries, the problem is they want a decent wage for it and the capitalists dont like that, instead they want foreign migrant workers who will work for peanuts. 

 

 

.

It is not about cheap labour it is simply about getting the job done .  Pay can actually be quite good and is at least min wage.

[Steven P]

You've sort of covered my thoughts on the above, at school we were expected to go on to 6th form and unniversity of college, nothing was ever said about manual jobs or trades, or where to go to get them (and the school looked over farms, the next big town in that direction was about 15 miles away). Farmers get their seasonal staff through agences If they are anthing like the agents I have tried to use, the agent gets the full rate and then tries to fll the role with the cheapest labour and pocket the difference. If I want say, £10.10 an hour (and the other 150 UK workers want the same) but the Romanians will go for £10 an our (simple sums) then the agency is getting an extra £15 an hour from the migrant workers which is a couple of thousand over a season. Migrant workers are cheaper so agencies want to use them obviously. Then look at the UK workers, the vast majority of us hae worked all our lives with the expectaion of school - higer education - offce job - retire - die and manual labour seams below us despite the wages available. Many would like ti wait out just in case the ideal job comes along next week.. or the week after than take a 'lesser job. The final thought I ave is that generall we don't know what the the expected earnings are - sure we can see the hourly rate.. but 40 hour week at that rate and then overtime at a higher rate.. but never metions how many hours exoected,, if we knew that 4 t 5 months hardsip away from the family could be paying £700 a week might make it more apealing (years ago train drivers or signak men or someone was going on strike tll it slipped out what they were earning (strike was over pay). The next week the management went to the union with hundreds of job applications and said "Oh we can just get new staff - here are the applocants" - and the strike ended... point being that people get more interested if the take home pay is known an is nice)

[Khriss]

Ive worked for farmers an they were c**ts. Bank in their pocket and nice 4x4 i could never afford. I sympathise with some who care for the land, and work the hours -  but met too many who would have the feudal system back in a flash. K

[Mesterh]

18 minutes ago, Squaredy said:

It is not about cheap labour it is simply about getting the job done .  Pay can actually be quite good and is at least min wage.

I've worked on a farm, would I fck do it for minimum wage. 

Let's face it, it's a shit job, hard work, poor pay and short term. It's not rocket science to work out why not many british people would sign up for the job.

If you lived in a country where there was no work, you recieved no benefits and lived off the bones on your arse then someone offered to fly you out and earn more in a week than most people earn in a month would you turn it down or would you work your arse off hoping they pick you next time?

 

[Peasgood]

I have employed Romanians to pick strawberries and had them live on site. I would class them as my friends and still in touch years later.

There are always comments about the farmer just wanting cheap labour, these people aren't cheap.

They are preferred because they work hard, are bright, quick learners, polite, honest, reliable and actually want to work.

I have also employed locals to do the same job, generally they are the opposite of the above. There are exceptions in both camps of course as there are also bound to be bad farmers when it comes to looking after their employees.

There is no real reason why the locals can't do the job, they just don't want to. It has nothing to do with pay either. The locals are just not hungry enough, they can get enough money doing easier work. The Romanians if they could find a job at home would do so, and a well paid job over there is about £250 a month, prices of things are about the same as here. That is what they tell me.

 

Plenty of posts on here moaning about employees not working hard, failing to turn up, poor time keeping, on the mobile all the time, smoking too much, etc etc. If you could find people without those faults you would jump at it even if they cost you a bit more rather than a bit less as everyone claims. Their worst fault is if you ask them if they used a chainsaw before (or any other machine) you can be sure they will say yes when most likely they've never even seen one.

No doubt someone will be along soon to say get the people on the dole to do it. WTF makes anyone think they the dole queue is a good source of hard working people is beyond me. Try it yourself and then comment.