{"id":29177,"date":"2021-06-16T15:07:27","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T14:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=29177"},"modified":"2021-06-16T15:07:57","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T14:07:57","slug":"farm-worker-shortage-can-be-solved-with-better-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=29177","title":{"rendered":"Farm worker shortage can be solved with better pay"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n\n<p>Difficulties finding seasonal agricultural workers could solved by improving notoriously bad pay and conditions in the sector, Unite has said in response to complaints by UK fruit farmers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Managing director of Kent-based Winterwood Farms Ltd, which produces fruit crops in the UK, Europe and South Africa, Stephen Taylor told the PA his UK operations were \u00e2\u20ac\u0098at the brink\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 because of a lack of workers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chairman of British Summer Fruits, Nick Marston, said there are less and less EU seasonal workers and that farmers are facing the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bimpossibility of recruiting a significant proportion of our large workforce from UK residents\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Unite national officer Bev Clarkson said that if pay, terms and conditions were right in agriculture then there would be UK workers available as well as migrant workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the big problem \u00e2\u20ac\u201c there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s massive issues because workers are extremely low paid, they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any job security and are often treated badly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTo prevent chronic labour shortages requires not only individual employers to up their game, but for the government to implement sector-wide reforms and assistance, including reinstating the Agricultural Wages Board.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNot being part of the EU\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Common Agricultural Policy should also mean government making the allocation of farming subsidies conditional on the creation of decent, secure jobs.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>by Ryan Fletcher <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Difficulties finding seasonal agricultural workers could solved by improving notoriously bad pay and conditions in the sector, Unite has said in response to complaints by UK fruit farmers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[42],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29177"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29177"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29179,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29177\/revisions\/29179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}