Well I did wonder how long it would be before agency staff started getting the boot at Staples Farm in Wrangle.
A little bit of history for those who do not know,
Late last year Staples applied for planning permission to site 21 caravans for occupation by seasonal workers along with ancillary welfare facilities, including 2 shipping containers, a landscaped earth mound and recreation ground
They also applied for RETROSPECTIVE planning permission for the 19 that they already had and were using!
In total, 40 caravans each housing up to 6 persons have been allowed to be placed at Staples Farm where they can keep workers on site, in other words a "Gulag"!
Despite the enviroment agency objecting thus giving the planning committee an opportunity to refuse it, they didnt .It was approved and permission granted, with only one vote against!
This new gulag will house up to 246 “workers” from outside the EU under a scheme called SAWS (Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme). This scheme permits workers to come here for up to six months but they have to be “housed” by the employer.
These “inmates” are not permitted to bring vehicles on site and the employers have kindly provided bicycles for the “inmates” use.
Even more generous is the provision of three 8 seater minibuses which will, ”transport workers to obtain daily essentials and occasionally for days out to Lincoln etc.”
A quick calculation means that these minibuses will need to make 33 trips daily just to “obtain daily essentials” Hmmmm And the trips to Lincoln will need to load up 8 people 10 times each, and make the round trip to Lincoln. Well that’s pretty impressive, when are the “inmates” going to fit in time to work one may wonder??
The above illustrates just how ridiculous the whole scheme is.
But why do Staples or anyone for that matter feel the need to create this "gulag"?
Surely with all the migrant workers this town has, there is no need to bring in more foreign nations from outside the EU, and what about the growing number of indigenous nationals who can’t find work, traditionally they were the pool of labour that farmers used to use. These days, for them, even agency work is scarce.
Staples justification for this grand creation is as follows:
In order to maintain a skilled and reliable workforce the applicants have decided to reduce its dependency on agency staff and instead labour will be sourced the Governments SAWS scheme.
The applicants (Staples), considers that the use of gang labour has the following disadvantages:
It is not possible to ensure the correct skill level and maintain continuity of staff or willingness to work (hang on didn’t someone say that about the Brits?)
Cost of paying for poor quality labour is not viable ( now we are getting warmer as to the reason)
Gang labour does not provide a flexible or instantly accessible workforce. ( strange I thought that was the very reason for dropping the use of local labour in favour of agency labour)
So there you have the History, and now back to real time
I am hearing that around 70 agency staff have been laid off from Staples in the last 2 weeks.
As I am sure many will be aware these are quite probably foreign nationals ( as indeed most employees of these agencies are these days) and they will most probably end up joining the indigenous population, who cant find work, in claiming jobseekers allowance.
I did warn of this in a letter to the Standard in December last year,
I said “ This years cheap migrant worker will become next years benefit claimant” The bit the Standard did not print was “when some other impoverished nation joins the E.U. ( and its highly likely that the current entry restrictions will be lifted on Bulgarian and Romanian nationals ) and under cuts the current workforce’s wage.
Well all I can say is TOLD YOU SO!
A little bit of history for those who do not know,
Late last year Staples applied for planning permission to site 21 caravans for occupation by seasonal workers along with ancillary welfare facilities, including 2 shipping containers, a landscaped earth mound and recreation ground
They also applied for RETROSPECTIVE planning permission for the 19 that they already had and were using!
In total, 40 caravans each housing up to 6 persons have been allowed to be placed at Staples Farm where they can keep workers on site, in other words a "Gulag"!
Despite the enviroment agency objecting thus giving the planning committee an opportunity to refuse it, they didnt .It was approved and permission granted, with only one vote against!
This new gulag will house up to 246 “workers” from outside the EU under a scheme called SAWS (Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme). This scheme permits workers to come here for up to six months but they have to be “housed” by the employer.
These “inmates” are not permitted to bring vehicles on site and the employers have kindly provided bicycles for the “inmates” use.
Even more generous is the provision of three 8 seater minibuses which will, ”transport workers to obtain daily essentials and occasionally for days out to Lincoln etc.”
A quick calculation means that these minibuses will need to make 33 trips daily just to “obtain daily essentials” Hmmmm And the trips to Lincoln will need to load up 8 people 10 times each, and make the round trip to Lincoln. Well that’s pretty impressive, when are the “inmates” going to fit in time to work one may wonder??
The above illustrates just how ridiculous the whole scheme is.
But why do Staples or anyone for that matter feel the need to create this "gulag"?
Surely with all the migrant workers this town has, there is no need to bring in more foreign nations from outside the EU, and what about the growing number of indigenous nationals who can’t find work, traditionally they were the pool of labour that farmers used to use. These days, for them, even agency work is scarce.
Staples justification for this grand creation is as follows:
In order to maintain a skilled and reliable workforce the applicants have decided to reduce its dependency on agency staff and instead labour will be sourced the Governments SAWS scheme.
The applicants (Staples), considers that the use of gang labour has the following disadvantages:
It is not possible to ensure the correct skill level and maintain continuity of staff or willingness to work (hang on didn’t someone say that about the Brits?)
Cost of paying for poor quality labour is not viable ( now we are getting warmer as to the reason)
Gang labour does not provide a flexible or instantly accessible workforce. ( strange I thought that was the very reason for dropping the use of local labour in favour of agency labour)
So there you have the History, and now back to real time
I am hearing that around 70 agency staff have been laid off from Staples in the last 2 weeks.
As I am sure many will be aware these are quite probably foreign nationals ( as indeed most employees of these agencies are these days) and they will most probably end up joining the indigenous population, who cant find work, in claiming jobseekers allowance.
I did warn of this in a letter to the Standard in December last year,
I said “ This years cheap migrant worker will become next years benefit claimant” The bit the Standard did not print was “when some other impoverished nation joins the E.U. ( and its highly likely that the current entry restrictions will be lifted on Bulgarian and Romanian nationals ) and under cuts the current workforce’s wage.
Well all I can say is TOLD YOU SO!
1 comment:
Living near the aforementioned "Gulag", I can certainly confirm that life here has been VERY different in the last couple of years. Life used to be very peaceful with the local farmers working in the fields, giving respect to the local residents. Nowadays, we are treated like 2nd class citizens in our own country and subjected to an array of anti-social activities. The new migrant labour seem to have no problem in urinating in front of our houses, staring and yelling at the tops of their voices, waving cabbage knives threatenly and from mid morning (if not before), being under the influence. They charge down the country roads in vehicles having no road manners and causing us to quickly veer off the road onto high verges, causing damage to our cars. In this "rural" part of lincolnshire you do not expect loud music to be played at all hours, swarms of people sitting on the roadside drinking alcohol etc, and leaving the local residents feeling very vulnerable. I would like to know how this indeed got through the council and who's palm got greased!! What damage to the land is Staples causing by their INTENSIVE farming - it is getting like living in the American Dustbowl of the 1930's. I think it is high time the actions of these people were subject to the same level of scrutiny as applies to the indigenous population. Just because they work in the middle of nowhere should not mean that they can "get away with murder". PLEASE someone help before this state of affairs becomes irreversible and this area turns into bandit country.
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