Filipino workers have been recruited to work on farms particularly in Britain's Jersey island. Farm owners expressed concern that there wouldn't be enough migrant workers to help them harvest the Royal potato after the United Kingdom left the European Union in a referendum in 2016.
Many workers from Poland and Romania have left the island since the drop in the value of pound against the euro. The economy in Poland has improved significantly in recent years, which helped people to find work in their homeland.
According to the DailyMail, 18 workers were recruited in February 2020 on a nine-month contract. The union had a contact who had heard of Filipinos being hired to work through an agency in Scotland and Northern Ireland, Peter Le Maistre as quoted on the DailyMail report.
"That all went very well. By word of mouth more growers in Jersey were interested in staff for 2021," Maistre said.
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| Photo credits: Alamy / Theguardian |
"By the end of this month we'll have already got 35 Filipino workers in and another 15 are coming by the end of this week. So we will have 50 Filipino workers across farms in Jersey for 2021," he added.
Jersey Royal potatoes is vital on the island's economy, as it bring about £65 million (about P4.2 billion) of retail sales in the UK alone.
Christine Hellio, who managed the farm, said she have employed four workers from the Philippines, aged between 25 to 31. They came from the Philippines through agency.
"Finding people to do farm work has always been a problem. Some people think it's all about driving tractors, but it's very manual work and it's not everyone's cup of tea," she said.
"It is really lovely and refreshing that our Filipino workers are happy to be in our field. We'd have no hesitation in recruiting another group," she added.
In fact, one of her workers from the last time asked if he can come back and we are really looking forward to having him here again," she continued.
"It's really nice that somebody wants to come back who has tried and likes the work."
Meanwhile, minimum wage for workers in Jersey is £8.32, or P543.25, per hour.
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