The £7-per-hour jobs locals don't want
Mar 12th 2008, 3:54 pm
#31
Aussie lost in the UK
Joined: Jun 2007
Location: Terrigal, NSW Central Coast
Posts: 682
Re: The £7-per-hour jobs locals don't want
Hmmm maybe things have changed Vash, but it always used to be paid by quantity... whether that be bin, tub or Pallet, not Hourly. My wifes uncle still gets paid this way when he does Tomato picking up around Bendigo, He has been doing it for years, and earns about 25 bucks an hour. Perhaps he opts to get paid that way.
Depends on the place.
I was the manager, and I payed the same per hour to everyone, as long as you worked to the maximum of your ability....... and I tried to create a team spirit by 'bonuses' for doing it faster or better....bunuses usually in the form of an esky full of longnecks and a BBQ full of sausages at the end of the week - or perhaps a cash bonus on the last day if vintage was good.
.we ended up wit hthe young uni students vonunteering to help the retuired people carry buckets, and the retired people bringing biscuits for hte students.....I wa pretty proud of that lot and how hard they worked (freaking nearnly klled me, and I was only in my early 20's then!
Mar 12th 2008, 3:59 pm
#32
'In limboland'
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 13,880
Re: The £7-per-hour jobs locals don't want
It's a good job all those foreigners are there to keep the locals in dole money. Just think what would happen if no one was generating any wealth.
On the Aussie front, the influx of (some rather tasty) Polish barstaff must be hitting the work prospects of some Aussies working their way around Europe.
On the Aussie front, the influx of (some rather tasty) Polish barstaff must be hitting the work prospects of some Aussies working their way around Europe.
I used to do potato picking in the evenings when I was 14. It was hard work and we'd be paid by weight. Some of the older lads would come behind us and tip our spuds into their boxes, it was soul destroying.
Mar 12th 2008, 4:42 pm
#33
Proudly Deplorable
Joined: May 2003
Location: Alloha snack bar
Posts: 24,246
Re: The £7-per-hour jobs locals don't want
High wages have drawn scores of Eastern Europeans to at least one corner of England. But not everyone welcomes this new workforce even if unemployed locals themselves refuse to do the same jobs.
A slice of today's British countryside. Giant butternut squash nestle in the ground waiting to be plucked and dispatched to satisfy gastropub tastes. Half a dozen workers trudge behind a tractor bending down to pick and load the squash. And the only person in the field who's British is the bloke driving the tractor. The rest are all from Eastern Europe.
[...]
The agricultural sector would be in dire straits without the immigrants willing to do the hard graft on the land. Labour which can net workers up to £25,000-a-year with overtime.
But that's not enough to entice some of the local lads picking up their dole money in Peterborough. A constant trickle of young men are in and out of the office collecting their state benefits. But there's little appetite for taking one of those vegetable-picking jobs of up to £7-an-hour.
One group of lads:
"No mate I'd prefer to sign-on than do that."
"I don't want to work in like no cornfield."
"I don't want to work with a load of foreigners."
Another lad is picking up his last benefits cheque. He's just got a job after 12 months of searching.
"I think because of all the foreigners" he says. "I know people don't like it, but I've never had trouble getting a job before. I've been going for jobs and they've got over 200 people applying for them."
Beeb.
Mar 12th 2008, 4:46 pm
#34
Proudly Deplorable
Joined: May 2003
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Posts: 24,246
Mar 12th 2008, 5:42 pm
#35
Fighting my corner
Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2005
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Posts: 11,948
Re: The £7-per-hour jobs locals don't want
Mar 12th 2008, 5:50 pm
#37
Lapine Member
Joined: Nov 2004
Location: Austin, Texas in my own little world
Posts: 21,691
Re: The £7-per-hour jobs locals don't want
We had uni students, retired people, locals, friends of friends out there working their AR$ES off for crap money - it was hard, heavy work, ten hour days, starting at 6 am and working throught the Feb/March heat (which can get above 40 for weeks on end in the Hunter Valley) - but it was work, hard work, but work they were willing to do for a bit of cash!!
Because there are people who can be exploited.
I agree that people ought to not be on benefits if there are jobs to be had, but £7 per hour is not a livable wage to support a family. Or I suppose fruit and veg pickers ought not have families?
Mar 12th 2008, 7:19 pm
#38
Fighting my corner
Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2005
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Posts: 11,948
Re: The £7-per-hour jobs locals don't want
If it's hard work then why on earth is it crap money?
Because there are people who can be exploited.
I agree that people ought to not be on benefits if there are jobs to be had, but £7 per hour is not a livable wage to support a family. Or I suppose fruit and veg pickers ought not have families?
Because there are people who can be exploited.
I agree that people ought to not be on benefits if there are jobs to be had, but £7 per hour is not a livable wage to support a family. Or I suppose fruit and veg pickers ought not have families?
Mar 12th 2008, 11:36 pm
#39
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Apr 2005
Location: Western burbs, Melbourne
Posts: 2,260
Re: The £7-per-hour jobs locals don't want
I used to work for Supplementary Benefits (top up bit from Unemployment Benefit) and there was two distinct groups:
1)Honest people who were bewildered to find themselves unemployed and told the DHSS every bit of cash they had.
2)The professional claimants- knew the system inside out and how to milk it. The number of people who would split with their partner, but during unannounced calls 'he is just visiting the kids' strangely enough.
Sadly the majority seem to fall into the second category, while the first lot just get stuffed by the system.
It depressed me no end to see the unfairness of it all.
1)Honest people who were bewildered to find themselves unemployed and told the DHSS every bit of cash they had.
2)The professional claimants- knew the system inside out and how to milk it. The number of people who would split with their partner, but during unannounced calls 'he is just visiting the kids' strangely enough.
Sadly the majority seem to fall into the second category, while the first lot just get stuffed by the system.
It depressed me no end to see the unfairness of it all.
Mar 13th 2008, 1:25 am
#40
Banned
Joined: Jan 2004
Location: Morayfield - The Posh Part
Posts: 10,138
Re: The £7-per-hour jobs locals don't want
If it's hard work then why on earth is it crap money?
Because there are people who can be exploited.
I agree that people ought to not be on benefits if there are jobs to be had, but £7 per hour is not a livable wage to support a family. Or I suppose fruit and veg pickers ought not have families?
Because there are people who can be exploited.
I agree that people ought to not be on benefits if there are jobs to be had, but £7 per hour is not a livable wage to support a family. Or I suppose fruit and veg pickers ought not have families?
PPL will not pay $30 a kilo of apples, or $100 a kilo of strawberrys.
If you disagree, then buy free range fruit, thats naturally fell off a tree , and kicked to the wayside.
Or as we called it Scrumping
Mar 13th 2008, 2:05 am
#41
pink 'n' bouncy
Joined: Jul 2006
Location: Zombie nation
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Re: The £7-per-hour jobs locals don't want
Mar 13th 2008, 6:00 am
#42
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Location: Morayfield - The Posh Part
Posts: 10,138
Mar 13th 2008, 6:07 am
#44
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Mar 13th 2008, 6:44 am
#45
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Joined: Mar 2008
Location: Peterborough, UK - Hopefully moving to Perth, WA
Posts: 136
Re: The £7-per-hour jobs locals don't want
This sounds like a lot of place in Australia. Just before the election I read articles about the high rate of unemployment in certain coastal towns around Australia. But at the same time these towns have loads of vacant jobs going unfilled. Basically the young guys in these towns are more interested in surfing and fishing than working. Albany, here in WA is one of these places. Loads of unemployment, yet the economy is booming and companies cannot find workers.
I just read through this whole thread. I just want to make a leeetle point. I am British and have worked since I left school at 16, I've never been out of work until I had my baby last year at the tender old age of 26. I'd worked for 10 years and have just gone back to work part time. When I was 20, I was unemployed for about 6 months, I went to the Jobcentre and they said that I couldn't claim anything as I didn't have enough National Insurance contribution credits.
Yet my little sister can just push a baby out, wait 5 years, then have another and all the time be entitled to rent, council tax, cheaper bills (cries when she cant pay a bill and is allowed to pay them at £1 a week whilst I have to deal with a stupid bill at once or suffer bailiffs!) income support, child benefit etc. AND SMOKE AND DRINK ALCOHOL AND HAVE TAKE AWAY EVERY WEEKEND!!
My niece at one point had 17 pairs of shoes, all their clothes were name branded. My partner works full time, I work 27 hours a week over 3 days, our clothes are from Tesco, we don't smoke and he allows himself 1 case of beer every now and then and take away is a once a month luxury!
I live here and it makes me angry beyond belief!
