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Wanna Pick Fruit? $22+ an Hour

Zardnaar

Zardnaar

Deity
Joined
Nov 16, 2003
Messages
21,488
Location
Dunedin, New Zealand
Well our government has decided to bring in 2000 seasonal workers to pick fruit.


That's approximately $15.84 usd (1210 Roubles) an hour.

Two week quarantine in a 4 star hotel, no Covid once you get out. No one's died of Covid yet in qurantine either.

Minimum wage here iirc is $18.90 and they've been abusing visa schemes for years to exploit workers.

Borders closed labour shortage and suddenly they're prepared to pay more for staff, who would have thunk it?

Might even be accommodation in the regions.
 
I suppose the plan also covers the airplane tickets to the field? :p
Is this marketed in places like Indonesia? Cause I can't see where else "nearby" you'd get much supply for this sort of thing.
 
Kyriakos said:
I suppose the plan also covers the airplane tickets to the field? :p
Is this marketed in places like Indonesia? Cause I can't see where else "nearby" you'd get much supply for this sort of thing.
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Not sure. The Russians had airfares paid not sure about these.

They're looking at Pacific Island recruitment.
 
warpus said:
I picked up a fruit once.

That was a weird weekend
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In college I picked cotton one weekend. A suite mate invited to his home outside of Charlotte and they had a few acres of cotton that needed picking by hand. Two afternoons of it has lasted me ever since. Slaves would be the only economic path prior to machines if one was growing any quantity. The work was simply awful. You walk hunched over dragging a long sack along the ground that gets heavier as you pick. You have to pull the cotton from the hard, dry, sharp boll and the unless you have the right callouses, your fingers get raw and sore quickly. A few hours of that on a Saturday afternoon totally did me in. Only to have to repeat it on Sunday morning.
 
So... I take it this is a TFW situation (temporary foreign worker) and no local people would take the job for that wage (but might for better working conditions)?

What kind of fruit?

I've picked cherries and plums in BC. Mind you it was a favor for a relative, not anything I was paid for. And when I lived in the house we had in town here, we had several fruit trees. I've picked crabapples, saskatoons, and the kind of plums we had here (the dog and one of our neighbors picked the cherry tree clean and then it died). I've picked wild cranberries (low-bush).
 
Valka D'Ur said:
So... I take it this is a TFW situation (temporary foreign worker) and no local people would take the job for that wage (but might for better working conditions)?

What kind of fruit?

I've picked cherries and plums in BC. Mind you it was a favor for a relative, not anything I was paid for. And when I lived in the house we had in town here, we had several fruit trees. I've picked crabapples, saskatoons, and the kind of plums we had here (the dog and one of our neighbors picked the cherry tree clean and then it died). I've picked wild cranberries (low-bush).
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Yeah TFW because pay and conditions are crap. For what they pay may as well work at McDonalds or a Supermarket. They can't or won't pay more.

The fruit is all sorts. Coming up to harvesting but apricots, kiwi, apples, cherries, grapes, peaches, nectarines, berries.

All sorts really. Apples, grapes are big ones cherries for Christmas. Strawberries as well Christmas tradition.

Theoretically if they paid more it would be a great holiday job for students.

I did it 20 odd years ago, they used to provide free accommodation.

And they've been abusing the visa system for years. In the 90s they paid reasonably well but they made a new visa system in 2005 or so iirc.

There's 6000 workers left over from March border closures who can't get home, they've been getting help from charities and emergency benefit.
 
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When I was young you did grapes picking in France for the girls, not for the money.
(or if you were a girl... for the boys)
 
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