As Brexit looms ever closer with still no definite exit plan in place how do British growers go about recruiting seasonal labour for next season? Will foreign workers be allowed to work in the UK? Will they need a visa? With countries within the European Union also looking for seasonal workers will they even want to go to the UK?
“As a company we are carrying on regardless and recruiting in Romania and Bulgaria,” explains John Hardman from HOPS Labour solutions. “This season we have been able to recruit particularly successfully, but purely because we have taken any fees or charges away from workers. Previously they paid for certain services and insurances etc. so we have turned that round so that we pay for all insurances, pastoral care and in some case we have paid for transport just to get the workers here.”
According to John the NFU has had shortfalls of up to 30%, where as at HOPS the short fall has only been 5 or 6% at peak time. These extra costs have been passed on to the growers. John said that this didn’t go down too well last year but when it came to the time for seasonal shortages they were happy to pay. He said that their main competitors have followed suit and are doing the same thing for next season.
Looking towards next season when no one knows what rules and regulations will be in place John said again they are carrying on regardless, “People are still planting strawberries and our crops will need picking. We were asked to tender for the Seasonal Agricultural Worker’s Program but the problem with that is that its only for 2,500 people and that will not fill the requirement which is around 60,000 people.
“Scotland is particularly difficult to recruit for and has been challenging for last two years because it is a long way from London which workers see as the centre of the universe, and unfortunately a few of the Scottish growers still have a Dickensian view of seasonal labour and not all accommodation is not up to standard. These days with social media this is quickly communicated among the seasonal workers who will post their experiences of working for particular growers online. It doesn’t take long for this reputation to tarnish a whole area. As a company we have been promoting great wages and accommodation and making sure they are the growers of choice. A lot of our growers have taken that on board and have great facilities such as pool tables, some even have a gymnasium. Conditions have to be right to attract the workers.
The Government has listened to the Mac Report and know that 99% of workers are from the EU so the industry is already getting preferential treatment although that is very early steps according to John.
“We are already finding difficulties in recruiting from Bulgaria, it is a similar scenario as we saw in Poland where it is just very difficult to recruit, we don’t have an issue in Romania yet and the shortfall of Bulgarians has been made up of Romanians. Our introduction of no fees has made a huge difference.
We are going more and more rural with our recruiting and so the quality of spoken English has also decreased greatly as has the quality of the workforce and the age democratic is increasing. This is very similar to what has happened in other countries we have worked in such as the Baltics. There isn’t a solution except for widening the seasonal agricultural workers program and at the moment we don’t know where the solution is going to come from.”
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or more information:
John Hardman
HOPS Labour solutions
Tel: +44 (0)2476 698 000
Email: John.Hardman@hopsls.com