Slim pickings

The new season’s English apples are now in the shops, the last fruit harvest of the British growing season. Like the plums, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries that we ate through the summer, this crop will mostly have been picked and packed by workers from Eastern Europe – many of whom will work in arduous conditions, sleep in poor-quality accommodation and receive poverty wages. The majority are Romanians and Bulgarians on the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme, or other EU citizens – mostly Poles and Slovakians – who can work unrestricted in the UK. They tend to find work through gangmasters – employment agencies for temporary workers or migrants.Fruit-picking is hard and uncertain work. With soft fruit you have to bend and crouch for hours on end, under constant pressure to work fast. You’ll probably sleep in a shared caravan, provided by the farm, which you will rent for around £30 a week. There are no guaranteed hours. Workers who come over expecting 39 hours a week can end up with a fraction of that, if the weather dictates. Or they may be under pressure to work many more hours than they want.