714,000 on the dole and we wasnt to import workers to pick fruit & veg?

Thelonious Monk

I wouldn't be adverse to doing a couple of weeks of this kind of work if it was really required, I picked kiwis for 2 weeks once, was back breaking work tbh.
Farmers aren't even paying minimum wage, but it's probably hard for them to pay much given how cheap their produce goes for. I personally think we should be paying more for most foods, and if farmers got more money for products maybe they could pay the seasonal staff more, and maybe this would encourage farmers to branch out and produce different kinds of food.

RasTa

Irish people only pick fruit abroad.

suicide_circus

Plumbthedepths wrote: »

Will you be taking up one of the roles?

if i was unemployed, certainly, i've done manual labour. my point about national self reliance still stands however.

WoollyRedHat

RasTa wrote: »

Irish people only pick fruit abroad.

It's because of the low-hanging fruit over there.

Gretas Gonna Get Ya!

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

When they talk about how many people Ireland can feed I think we'd need to be eating a lot of powdered milk.

Yeah, and how would people get their sugar and caffeine fix...? (not to mention their other more illicit fixes)

Try controlling an entire nation after you suddenly remove all their sugar and caffeine overnight! :P

krissovo

The UK appears to have mobilized a "Land Army" for fruit & veg picking.

"Thousands apply for fruit and veg grower jobs"
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52215606

suicide_circus

LeinsterDub wrote: »

That's a very odd why of spinning giving people jobs which the willingly agree to and has all the same protections are any other job

its the other side of the coin

Cordell

suicide_circus wrote: »

What? Fruit pickers are paid at least minimum wage and the job is subject to all the usual employment laws and yet we need to import that labour...this has been the entire point of the thread.

Minimum wage for hard seasonal work won't be attractive for anyone on the dole, especially now, especially for the ones getting the special coronavirus payment.

noodler

These limited employment permit restrictions are only typically adopted.after all attempts to source the labour within the EU has failed.

gmisk

krissovo wrote: »

The UK appears to have mobilized a "Land Army" for fruit & veg picking.

"Thousands apply for fruit and veg grower jobs"
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52215606

I don't think the amount of people googling jobs is a good metric.
Let's see how many actually want the jobs when they see how poorly paid and back breaking the work will be.

maestroamado

Gretas Gonna Get Ya! wrote: »

Yeah, and how would people get their sugar and caffeine fix...? (not to mention their other more illicit fixes)

Try controlling an entire nation after you suddenly remove all their sugar and caffeine overnight! :P

We also need everyday vegetables as we only seem to produce only a small amount of our needs in this area.
I know we produce a large surplus of beef and dairy but i think we import some proportion of most other meat.


Its interesting to see that people in UK want to work in this area.
I hope the same happens here as i have had a thing about how we are reliant on imported food for years. I mean the food we were famous for spuds, turnips cabbage etc.

pure.conya

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

You can't blame the EU on Irish business wanting to import cheaper labour and Irish people unwilling to do this kind of work.

And you can't blame the irish people for not wanting to work in jobs not paying minimum wage when people won't pay a fair price for fruit and veg

Cordell

noodler wrote: »

These limited employment permit restrictions are only typically adopted.after all attempts to source the labour within the EU has failed.

It's already about labor from within the EU, Romanians and Bulgarians.
The issue is that the farmers need this labor which they can't source internally, so they need foreign (but still EU) seasonal low skilled hard working workers. To suggest that they should go for those getting paid to sit on their arses already here is not wrong in principle, it's just not realistic.

maestroamado

pure.conya wrote: »

And you can't blame the irish people for not wanting to work in jobs not paying minimum wage when people won't pay a fair price for fruit and veg

"our moto is buy cheap and sell dear"
we like money which is fine.... we seem to like much more than we need...

suicide_circus

Cordell wrote: »

Minimum wage for hard seasonal work won't be attractive for anyone on the dole, especially now, especially for the ones getting the special coronavirus payment.

correct.

my point is that;

a. we use foreign poor folk to pick our fruit and veg, getting them to gather in airports and get on planes while keeping ourselves cocooned from the virus.

b. one of the talking points around this virus has been our dependence on cheap stuff (and labour) from other parts of the world, which i felt fitted in to the topic.

Cordell

Yes, but now is not the time to fix that dependence, now it's the time to pick those fruits&vegs before they rot.
After this plague passes no one will care anyway, so nothing will change...

suicide_circus

Cordell wrote: »

Yes, but now is not the time to fix that dependence, now it's the time to pick those fruits&vegs before they rot.
After this plague passes no one will care anyway, so nothing will change...

yeah, my points are abstract moral considerations, not very practical right now admittedly but i feel they need to be made

maestroamado

Cordell wrote: »

Yes, but now is not the time to fix that dependence, now it's the time to pick those fruits&vegs before they rot.
After this plague passes no one will care anyway, so nothing will change...

There is very little to be picked in this country yet that i am aware of.
Wexford strawberries and a few bits of greenhouse stuff.
Now is the time for planting but it may these people come and work for the whole growing season...

Me and my buddy picked strawberries in the UK back in the early 90s. After a few hours the owner arrived, we produced our National Insurance cards and were promptly let go. They only wanted illegals. They lived in tents on a huge farm and emerged out of the fog like the walking dead in the morning.

Earnings for 4 hours work - 50p for me and 62p for my friend. The going wage at the time was about £3 / hour. We were used to that sort of work as had worked on farms and bogs growing up. Most of the immigrants were getting similar money.

I doubt much has changed since.

maestroamado

maestroamado wrote: »

There is very little to be picked in this country yet that i am aware of.
Wexford strawberries and a few bits of greenhouse stuff.
Now is the time for planting but it may these people come and work for the whole growing season...

There are quite a few mushroom farms.

osarusan

Print up a few handbills, get the Okies movin' again.

You can print a hell of a lot of han’bills with what ya save payin’ fifteen cents an hour for fiel’ work.

maestroamado

I did a bit of digging today, i blame this post, i'm effen wrecked...

Pa ElGrande

Pa ElGrande wrote: »

That's why I said target transition year students, low risk of infection, get them out of the house and stop driving their parents demented and earn some cash at the same time. This group will be looking to strike out on their own soon enough and here is an opportunity.

Why are they low risk of infection? Surely they can get and transmit covid just as much as older people

NIMAN

If the government are serious about restricting movements and this virus, this these folk should not be allowed into the country.

Plumbthedepths

Plumbthedepths wrote: »

Pay people the minimum wage and operate the employment rights that exist, should be no problem attracting workers.

So pay people 404 quid then ask them to get up when it's still dark, travel to work, work 40 odd hours in a field under the hot sun and pay prsi at 7%

Or

They can get up when they like and sit in the sun with a cool drink for 350 quid and not pay prsi

Fred Cryton

Pa ElGrande wrote: »

Farm sector planning to fly in 1,500 seasonal workers to save fruit and veg harvest




Have we really turned into a nation of snowflakes. There are 45,000 students doing transition year, there are bugger all Summer jobs going this year at the current rate. This is a group that is at low risk of infection and with that many involuntarily people thrown on dole I'm sure families could do with an extra source of income and the students can get the work experience. As far as I know most of these have got their Safe Pass so there should be very little barriers to entry other than lack of experience.

Well if we pay people 350 a week to sit on their backside why would they. That's 35 hours of labour at minimum wage. For free and for doing nothing.


Only in soft old Ireland!

Pa ElGrande

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

Why are they low risk of infection? Surely they can get and transmit covid just as much as older people

10 to 19 age group seem to be the most resilient to infection. Why I can't answer. That does not mean they can't transmit the infection to others, but they are at least risk from negative effects and would be most suitable for this type of work in the present circumstance.


https://twitter.com/AndyBiotech/status/1241741127205572609

Pa ElGrande

Fred Cryton wrote: »

Well if we pay people 350 a week to sit on their backside why would they. That's 35 hours of labour at minimum wage. For free and for doing nothing.


Only in soft old Ireland!

Be careful, the longer we are out the more likely the long tail consequences to the lockdown. If you are fortunateto be still employed at the moment you may not be in a few months time when the organisation or people that employ you have to deal with the consequences of reduced cash flow and repair their balance sheets. The intention is that most of these people can get back to work in May assuming the people who decide this are not playing it by ear, know what they are doing and are not blindly waiting on other countries to take the lead.

I am just pointing out there are a pool of workers who are available, looking for Summer jobs and most probably a way to get out of the house who are in an age range that has low risk of dying due to the virus and are suitable to do the work.