A farming group has chartered a plane to fly in staff from Romania so the European workers can help train its seasonal UK workforce.
G’s Growers a Cambridgeshire based group has recruited 180 “skilled workers” the young men and women, all wearing protective face masks and gloves, flew into a near-deserted Stansted airport on Thursday afternoon (16th April 2020). The group stated “we are following official advice and the workers will be quarantined in small teams in our own hostel accommodation.”
The Fruit and veg giant shelled out £40,000 to charter the Titan Airways AirBus 320 flight. The firm’s HR director Beverly Dixon said: “By putting on this flight we are honouring our commitment to those who have worked with us over a number of years”.
Matthew Purton, the head of commercial aviation at Air Charter Services, said the company had tendered for 6 more flights in the coming weeks, which could see 450 workers flown in to help avert food shortages.
In the past three weeks G’s Growers have recruited nearly 500 UK-based pickers to work from the end of April.
The Scale of the Problem
The NFU estimates that 60,000 to 70,000 seasonal workers are needed to pick Britain’s fruit and vegetables each year. The UK faces an imminent shortage of labour, with up to 75% of the seasonal labourers who come to the UK each year no longer able to do so due to travel restrictions in place over the coronavirus pandemic
Romania have lifted restrictions to allow farm workers to fly overseas.
Land Army
The Response so far
More than 30,000 people have applied for farming jobs after a campaign to “feed the nation” began two weeks ago.
Concordia, the charity tasked with filling the gap, said 30,000 people had expressed an interest and around 2,000 were currently being matched to roles on farms.
Almost 9 in 10 of those who have applied are UK citizens and less than one-third have a farming background. About half of applicants were seeking work after losing their livelihoods due to Covid-19 Concordia stated.
Jobs websites said they had seen record numbers of searches for farm work including fruit picking since farmers put out the call for extra staff.
Recruitment website Totaljobs has reported a record 50,000 searches for farm jobs last week. Searches for “fruit picker” and “farm worker” rose 330 per cent and 107 per cent respectively an 83% jump over the past month.
Steve Warnham of Totaljobs said he had noticed “a trend of workers who have been temporarily displaced due to Covid-19 who are now looking for roles they can take on in other sectors to keep Britain moving.”
Donna Holland, head of marketing and growth at Concordia added. “There are huge numbers coming through, which is great news for UK farmers who desperately need workers.
We will continue to call out as it’s not anywhere near what the UK farming industry needs. We are aiming to fill as many positions as we possibly can.
We are usually operating in an environment where there is very low unemployment in the UK but that is no the case anymore so that is the reason we are having an influx of UK workers when we wouldn’t normally.
We are pleased to be able to support those people who have suddenly found themselves jobless by being able to offer them stable local employment.
Government urged to list agricultural employees under its key workers guidelines
Mark Bridgeman is the president of the Country Land and Business Association and is urging the Government to list agricultural employees under its new “key workers” guidelines.
He spoke to Shelagh Fogarty on LBC to explain why it’s a great option…
Analysis
With more than 1 million people applying for Universal Credit following the Government’s imposed “lockdown” and many thousands of students now unable to find summer jobs in bars and restaurants it makes perfect sense for the Government to fast track and heavily promote a “National DWP Key Workers Campaign” to quickly fill the shortfall within our agricultural sector and help so many of those facing the dole queue through no fault of their own.
The British people are already stepping up to the plate in their droves – something we Brits are renowned for when our backs are up against the wall.
Now is the time for the Government to do the same – step up play its part and get the country working again – post haste!
http://www.fruitnet.com/fpj/article/181264/nearly-10000-brits-apply-for-picking-jobs
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11416315/first-plane-romanian-fruit-pickers-coronavirus/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-52300349
I wrote my first article for Unity News Network on 30th December 2019, and I have been writing ever since – my library is now well in excess of 200 articles.
Alternative media is essential in these times of unprecedented censorship and mainstream bias, which has ramped up exponentially during the past 2 years. The overton window of “acceptable opinion” is growing every narrower.
Having a citizen’s log, cataloguing the twists and turns of life during these turbulent times is essential.
Thank you Unity News Network for allowing me a voice on your platform.
