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Producers from Northern Greece fear that the fruits which have not been affected yet by the foul weather will gorotten on the trees if the producers abide by the law. The problem is they cannot find either Greek workers, or foreigners to pick the fruits.
According to the producers, the Greeks are not willing to work in the fields, whereas the foreigners, despite their willingness, cost a lot due to the last legislative changes regarding entering, staying and working in Greece.
Despite the fact that the average pay per day might be 25 euro, plus provided food and accommodation, in the absence of legal labor, harvesting is done by "tourists", i.e. foreigners who enter the country with a tourist visa and without a work permit.
Georgios Zeykos, a cherry producer, speaks about the persecution by the police of illegal workers in the area of ​​Larissa and also says that: “it’s not just all the documents and the bad weather, but we also have to pay too much to hire foreigners to work in our fields. We can’t afford it and that’s why we are fined with 10,500 euro for each worker without a work permit”.
The Greeks fail to work in the fields
Expressing concern about the future of the sector, plus the serious international circumstances (the situation in Russia and Ukraine, which are the main importers of Greek fruits and vegetables), Zeykos noted that "we, the producers, take a risk when we hire foreigners, to play hide and seek with the police simply because we cannot pay”.
As for the Greeks, Zeykos said that some of them do not want to work in the fields because this is a temporary job, and others are poorly taught to live as unemployed for years on end.
Triphonas Pefkos, a producer from Pela, said quite clearly that: “most Greeks cannot work in the field because this is a hard job”. He asks the question which Greek would spend a whole day picking cherries from a tree (from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.).
Producer from Imatia, Thodoros Papakonstantinos, shares the same opinion, adding some new parameters as well that many unemployed Greeks have no idea who they should turn to if they want to look for a job in the fields.
 “The entire agricultural class is threatened by prison” emphasizes the chairperson of the Organization of the Producers in Imatia”, Christo Yanakakis, and adds:
“Our region needs more than 5,000 people for various agricultural activities not only in the field but also in canned food plants. Although the economic crisis has affected many people and their families, they don’t want to do that kind of work.”
Fees became too high
Talking about hiring foreigners, Yanakakis noted that the previous year the price for hiring a person was not higher than 200 euro (deposit insurance and bank guarantee), today it is more than 1200 euro.
He underlined that it is provided by law that every producer has to pay for every foreign worker 180 euro for a visa, 150 euro for a deposit and insurance for 2 months (which is 178 euro for a month), or 506 euro in total, pre-paid in March upon submitting the application.
Afterwards, the producer has to pay insurance for 2 more months, which is by the end of August, plus a deposit of 150 euro, or 862 euro altogether. For 75 working days, this meansan additional cost of 11.49 euro per day.
Also, according to Yanakakis, people are really motivated to hire illegal workers because if they don’t declare the price of labour for the purposes of bookkeeping, they owe a 13-percent tax on what is left. If declared, the tax increases to 44.19 % for insurance and deposit.
Moreover, tax shall be paid the following year, and the insurance and deposit instantly, which results in increased recruitment of illegal labor and a risk of protests in agriculture, which will be justified.