Britain looks to replace seasonal workers kept away by the virus.

  • Date: 07-Jul-2020
  • Source: The New York Times
  • Sector:Agriculture
  • Country:Oman
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Britain looks to replace seasonal workers kept away by the virus.

Business|Britain looks to replace seasonal workers kept away by the virus.Zak Oyrzynski said he was proud of his work picking strawberries at the Hall Hunter farm: "I didn't sit here and do nothing and be a couch potato.“Credit...Alex Atack for The New York TimesJuly 7, 2020, 6:26 a.m. ET

Britons are in fields across the country doing something they probably would not have imagined a few months ago: working as farm laborers, picking berries.

Fruit picking in Britain is traditionally done by seasonal workers from Eastern Europe. Because of travel restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus, many of those workers haven't made the trip.

Facing a labor shortage, the government started a "Pick for Britain“ campaign in April to attract British workers.

The job isn't glamorous, and the work is hard. A workday starts at 7 a.m., and the income can vary person by person.

"People say you can make a lot of money,“ Zak Oyrzynski, a new laborer, said, "but it's down to the picker.“ At Hall Hunter, the company that runs the farm, the average weekly pay in 2019 was £414 (almost $520), according to the company's website.

"A couple of young people dropped out because the pay was not what they