News Article!
Monday, 30 October 2006
Dear Sir
Anyone reading the reports in the national press regarding the quotas for Romanian and Bulgarian immigrant labour, and specifically the condition that 19,750 unskilled immigrants can only find work within the UK in the agriculture and food packaging sectors, can draw just two conclusions.
The first is that agriculture continues to be portrayed as the sink employment market for those lacking the skills to work anywhere else – when all else fails, go and work on a farm. The second is that the present Government is happy to proliferate this view and has no interest in the long term sustainability of a successful farming industry.
The truth is that British agriculture is a technologically advance industry working to high standards of food safety, animal welfare and health and safety producing high quality products for the human food chain.
Rather than requiring unskilled labour, the industry desperately needs to retain the many high-skilled people determined to carve out an industry in agriculture and to make positive strides to attract high calibre new entrants.
Skilled staff are the bedrock of successful farm businesses but they are in danger of being forced into extinction by a combination of a view that cheap labour is the salvation for farm profits and by a Government which, rather than investing in the future of British food production, is happy to preside over, and accelerate the demise of the home grown skilled workforce and its replacement by anyone happy to come over here, irrespective of the level of skills, training or experience.
As an industry we must resist this invasion of unskilled labour and instead show our commitment to the skilled staff who have helped many farms achieve excellence. We must also promote agriculture as a challenging and rewarding career, not a refuge for those who can’t find work elsewhere.
Yours faithfully
Michael Day
Stockmen UK
